Staff Psychologist

VA Careers - Psychologist

Psychologists are assigned to any VHA program and setting, including inpatient, residential, or outpatient medicine, surgery, mental health, neurology, rehabilitation medicine, geriatrics, Vet Centers, and the VHA National Center for Organizational Development. Staff Psychologists diagnose mental disorders, conduct psychological and/or neuropsychological assessments, treat mental disorders through a variety of modalities and provide adjunctive interventions for treatment of medical disorders. Among the modalities provided are individual, couples, family, and group psychotherapies, and other interventions such as environmental and behavioral interventions.

Duties may include, but are not limited to:

• This position is part of the Oceanside Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI) team. The psychologist in this position will be embedded within the Primary Care clinic at the Oceanside VA Clinic. Primary responsibilities include providing brief individual and group psychotherapy for Veterans whose symptoms do not require specialty mental health care, and receiving warm hand-offs from Primary Care teams to provide assessment and treatment planning for Veterans who indicate mental health needs.
• Provides psychodiagnostic assessment to diagnose mental disorders, perform risk assessment and crisis intervention, administer psychological and/or neuropsychological assessment, and provide a full range of evidence-based psychological interventions consistent with the psychologist's competencies and needs of the MHCL, including individual, family, and group psychotherapy.
• Develops, implements, and documents the psychotherapeutic treatment plan for assigned patients, including prompt completion of clinical reminders and other required documentation.
• Adheres to operational policies and procedures for the treatment team, Impact Unit, and MHCL, established by the VASDHS, the Associate Chief of Staff of the Mental Health Care Line, and the Chief of the Psychology Service.
• Collaborate with Section Chiefs, team coordinator, and/or MHCL leadership to identify key operational questions. Create and execute plan to address operational questions by collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data.
• Complies with all CPRS documentation procedures, including timeliness standards for documentation, proper patient check out procedures (e.g., entering diagnostic and procedure codes), and return to clinic orders.
• Attends and participates in administrative and informational meetings held by the Impact Unit, Psychology Service, Mental Health Care Line, and the facility.
• Provides consultation on empirically validated treatments as requested. Consults with psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, internists and other physicians, mental health pharmacists, as well as psychology staff and fellows. Provides workshops and seminars on empirically-validated psychological treatments and other areas of expertise, open to professionals in psychiatry, social work, nursing, internal medicine, other medical specialties, and pharmacy.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 0700-1700 (tour is flexible between timeframe)

Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized.

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

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more

Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases.

Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.

Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Telework: Available at Supervisors discretion.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 000000

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.