Social Worker

Job Title

The incumbent will be responsible for providing direct clinical care for Veterans with a serious mental illness (SMI) while under the direct clinical supervision of a licensed clinical social worker with the relevant experience to provide clinical supervision.

This includes screening, case management, recovery-based counseling and psychotherapy, intake assessments, ongoing assessments, annual reviews, treatment/recovery planning, group therapy if assigned, and outreach services.

The incumbent will help Veterans leverage internal strengths and external support to overcome limitations and barriers to optimize functional status and to stimulate progress on goals.

The incumbent will provide culturally competent care and seek to understand the unique experience of the Veterans served. The incumbent will seek to involve the families and significant others in the assessment and treatment of the Veteran with the Veteran's authorization.

The incumbent will provide Veterans and their families/significant others/caregivers supportive counseling related to helping Veterans with serious mental illness, co-occurring substance-related problems, co-occurring personality disorders, chronic or catastrophic illnesses, and other challenges.

The incumbent will assist with housing placements and referrals to and coordination with various community agencies and VA services.

The incumbent will follow suicide prevention protocols and will provide crisis intervention services consistent with those offered by MHICM.

The incumbent will participate in discharge planning and aftercare planning in collaboration with other VA services. The incumbent will carry a caseload of Veterans diagnosed with both serious mental illness (SMI) and of Veterans dually diagnosed with both SMI and substance use disorder (SUD).

The incumbent will review progress notes from other providers as needed.

The incumbent will educate veterans and veterans' support networks on options available to them, including self-help and support in the community.

The incumbent in this specific position will continuously gain experience in evidence-based SUD (substance use disorder) treatment to the extent that they will eventually be able to provide consultation and information sharing to other team members regarding SUD should they advance to the full performance level (GS 11) with MHICM.

The incumbent will attend daily huddles and weekly team meetings, will meet with the MHICM Coordinator as needed, and will also meet regularly with the Mental Health Supervisor as scheduled and/or as needed.

The incumbent will participate in process improvement activities, including making ongoing improvements to the incumbent's own social work practice as well as improvements related to the MHICM team as a whole and consistent with the Joint Commission.

The incumbent will work according to Joint Commission standards and will seek information and education as needed to understand and to apply these standards.

The incumbent will participate in peer chart audits and in providing meaningful input and feedback to teammates.

The incumbent will also provide consultation services to new social workers, social work graduate students, and other staff related to the needs of veterans with serious mental illness and SUD and the impact of psychosocial problems on their engagement with health care and compliance with treatment.

The incumbent will complete reports as needed and as requested from the MHICM Coordinator or the Mental Health Supervisor.

The incumbent will complete NEPEC forms as required, will follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for MHICM, and will also follow suicide prevention protocols and other policies and procedures pertaining more broadly to the Mental Health Services.

The incumbent will seek to minimize any "open encounters" through timely and proper documentation and will take action to prevent or correct these as advised. The incumbent will assist in implementing plans related to the challenges and opportunities derived from VHA metrics (e.g. SAIL).

The incumbent will ensure productivity is maintained at the established level for the program for which the incumbent is responsible.

The incumbent must have a valid driver's license and be willing to transport veterans when indicated.

Other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm (Subject to change based upon the needs of the agency.) Compressed/Flexible: Not Available Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 00000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized