Supervisory Social Worker - Crisis Response Team

Summary

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

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Duties

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VA Careers - Licensed Clinical Social Worker :

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

• Develop the schedule for all CRT staff and collaborate with on-call mental health providers to ensure that there is appropriate coverage for the ED.
• Identify and develop training for CRT staff as it relates to provision of care, orientation, documentation, etc.
• Serve as a member of the service line leadership, assisting with strategic planning, professional development, hiring, mentoring, coaching, and coverage.
• Develop downtime protocols for staff.
• Function autonomously to set priorities to meet the needs of Veterans, staff, and services collaborated with.
• Communicate effectively with Chief and Deputy Chief about successes, needs, and challenges.
• Provide clinical recommendations to ED physicians regarding appropriateness of psychiatric admissions and/or ED discharge with referral(s) to outpatient services, prioritizing patient safety, and balancing emergent situations arising simultaneously.
• Facilitate admissions to the Acute Mental Health Unit (5P) and/or collaborates with community facilities for psychiatric resources, to include admission.
• Ensure continuity of care for all Veterans presenting to the ED in mental health crisis by providing intervention and/or facilitating services with another provider(s).
• Provide education and referrals to veterans for community services, and coordinates these services, as necessary. Act as a liaison between community and VA programs as needed. Make appropriate referrals, as indicated, to reporting agencies such as Department of Family Services, Adult Protective Services, police, etc. Provide consultation to colleagues regarding emergent/urgent situations.
• Conduct all required Focused Professional Practice Evaluations (FPPE) and Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluations (OPPE).
• Ensure that staff are trained in conducting peer chart reviews.
• Ensure that clinical privileges are appropriate, and where needed additional privileges are requested by staff. Provide regular clinical supervision to team.
• Be accountable for practice of self and CRT team, including entering patient visits, appropriate clinical documentation, entering consults, and meeting productivity standards.
• Assess the ongoing needs of staff and provide appropriate education and training.
• Collaborate with other teams and services to increase education, awareness, and training opportunities.
• Appropriately delegate actions and duties to members of the team to promote professional development.
• Communicate with the Chief and Deputy Chief about needs and competing priorities.
• Consult with medical center staff on a wide variety of patient care issues.
• Conduct strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges (SWOC) assessment of program and address needs appropriately.
• Utilize LEAN principles and practices to respond to organizational and operation needs.
• Determine suicide and homicide risk utilizing current evidence-based research tools. Incumbent will fully assess suicide/homicide risk and protective factors to determine safety of the patients. Complete comprehensive suicide risk evaluations (CSRE), safety planning, and suicide behavior reports, as needed.
• Ensure adherence to facility and national risk management policies for assessment, management, consultation and documentation related to suicide/homicide risk.
• Provide assessment, brief psychotherapeutic interventions, and treatment referrals for veterans presenting with substance use disorders.
• Evaluate options to mitigate potential safety concerns which may include calling police for assistance, providing crisis intervention, mediating conflicts, and/or making referrals to ensure a safe outcome.
• Facilitate transfer and/or discharge from ED with appropriate continuity of care.
• Provide a full range of therapeutic interventions to veterans on the Psychiatric Inpatient Unit as part of after-hour behavioral health services, including individual, couples/family and group psychotherapy using empirically supported approaches.
• Conduct daily treatment rounds on the inpatient unit during non-business hours (weekends and holidays).
• Document psychological interventions and consultation activities in the patient's clinical record utilizing the electronic health record (EHR) and ensures an appropriate hand-off and documentation when transferring patient care.

Work Schedule : Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm

Recruitment/Relocation Incentive: May be authorized.

Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not authorized.

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact View email address on click.appcast.io, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more

Telework : On an ad-hoc basis.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement # : 590810

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements ( Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements :

United States Citizenship. Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.

Education. Have a master's degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Graduates of schools of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the School of Social Work is fully accredited. A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work. Verification of the degree can be made by going to to verify that the social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a masters of social work.

Licensure. Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 seriesin VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work atthe master's degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going to

All states except California use a series of licensure exams administered by the ASWB. Information can be found at ASWB is the association of boards that regulates social work. ASWB develops and maintains the social work licensing examination used across the country andis a central resource for information on the legal regulation of social work. The ASWB offers three examinations. The master's examination is generally used by states for the independent practice level of licensure or certification, while the advanced generalist and the clinical examinations are used for the advanced practice level of licensure or certification. Differences between the master's and the advanced exams demonstrate the expectation that advanced practice social workers will have a more sophisticated knowledge of practice theory and its application.

English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and writtenEnglish to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).

Grade Determination. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Supervisory Social Worker, GS-13

Experience/Education. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills in a specialty area or in administration demonstrating progressively more professional competency and judgment. Candidate may have certification or other post-master's degree training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship, or equivalent supervised professional experience.

Assignments at the GS-12 level. Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level. Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site; a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center, or a national VHA referral center, such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center, or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity. The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics. The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, ensures the care provided is of the highest quality. The senior social worker provides leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff. They serve on committees, work groups, and task forces at the facility, VISN and national level, or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor, Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services.

Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as supervisory social workers must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level, and must be able to provide supervision for licensure.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:

• (a) Ability to independently organize work, set priorities, and meet multiple deadlines.
• (b) Skill in a range of supervisory duties which includes clinical supervision, consultation, negotiation with other departments and quality improvement.
• (c) Ability to ensure provision of clinical social work services by supervised social workers.
• (d) Ability to delegate authority, manage priorities, coordinate work, and follow up on pending issues to complete duties in an accurate and timely fashion.
• (e) Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems, develop and implement solutions that result in efficient operations, and use data effectively to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the service.
• (f) Ability to provide staff training and development.

Preferred Experience: Understanding of VA Mental Health operations.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-13.

Physical Requirements: Must be in overall good health, able to sit at a desk working at a computer, engage in light to moderate physical

activity including sitting, walking, bending, and carrying supplies. Social Worker must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation, if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the social worker or others. Position requires walking throughout the clinic and/or Medical Center, standing for extended periods of time, and involves sitting at a computer and in counsel and consultation with Veterans and interdisciplinary teams. This position also requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading; and repetitive motions of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit:

Additional information

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.