Summary The GS-12 Senior Social Worker position reports to Social Work Service and is located in the Emergency Department (ED), which is under Emergency Services at the East Orange VA Medical Center. The Senior Social Worker is a clinically licensed Social Worker that practices independently and at an advanced level with specialized experienced in treating Veterans needing acute care who are referred to the Emergency Department. Responsibilities VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz\ua\UU Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional The incumbent must be capable of expert level psychosocial interventions to provide same-day mental health evaluation and/or psychosocial assistance as well as a variety of other services including short term solution focused counseling with individuals and families who may be in crisis, psychosocial assessments, treatment planning, education and referral for resources and benefits, case management, and post-intervention follow up. The Senior Social Worker has extensive skills in utilizing VA and community resources and provides ongoing consultation to ensure treatment is in place. Veterans coming to the ED often express a need for mental health services due to exacerbation of symptoms or psychosocial stressors including but not limited to homelessness, unemployment, and legal issues and triaged to the appropriate level of care. Responsibilities also include consultation/education to Medical Center staff and service providers, the collection and maintenance of statistical data, program planning, evaluation and modification, and the supervision of students as assigned. The Senior Social Worker is responsible for monitoring and coordinating interventions required of the medical center which are monitored by the VISN and VACO. These metrics include Post Discharge Engage (PDE) and Safety Planning Emergency Department (SPED) follow up. The incumbent uploads data and generate reports from centralized data warehouses to ensure facility is in compliance. The Senior Social Worker coordinates the 24-7 social work coverage of the Emergency Department which includes managing the pool of covering social workers and their schedules. He/she is also responsible for task supervision of the covering social workers during WHEN hours. The incumbent works closely with MH&BS staff and programs to coordinate transfers from the ED such as to acute psychiatry, substance use disorders rehabilitation and Domiciliary. He/she is the SW Service liaison to other services regarding disposition planning of patients in the ED. When there are no Veterans in the Emergency Department requiring social work services, the Senior Social Worker is assigned duties on the inpatient units, as needed. The incumbent provides case management and discharge planning services to the Medical/Surgical floors to support PCS Social Work whether the need is due to coverage during an employee's absence, a significant increase in patient occupancy or assistance needed with high complexity cases. The incumbent ensures that services are provided in a timely manner on those units and as directed by his/her supervisor. Other duties and responsibilities may be assigned by the supervisor and/or Chief, Social Work Service, as needed for the benefit of the Veteran, family, and quality of services. The Senior Social Worker is capable of practicing at the advanced level and has specialized knowledge of practice related to crisis intervention, biopsychosocial assessment, and coordination of services within VA NJ HCS as well as with New Jersey community partners, mental & behavioral health programs, homeless services and rehabilitation services. Clinical Duties The Senior Social Worker provides a full range of social work services within commonly accepted standards of social work practice which includes case work, individual, group and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial, discharge planning, case management and other services as appropriate. The incumbent assists patients and their significant others with coping and dealing with the loss and grief experiences in disability, terminal illness and death. The incumbent addresses Goals of Care Conversations, Advance Directives and Organ Donation in accordance with the standards of their work area. The incumbent provides wellness/prevention education and facilitate family or couple interventions as appropriate. Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty area, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes. The incumbent incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: Requirements 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. You may be required to serve a trial period. 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 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification 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). 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 http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation to verify that the social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a Master of Social Work. Licensure. Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/. Loss of Licensure or Certification. Once licensed or certified, social workers must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted independent license or certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of licensure or certification will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment. Creditable Experience. The candidate must have knowledge of current professional social work practices. To be creditable, the experience must have required the use of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics associated with current professional social work practice. The experience or education must be post-Masters of Social Work (MSW) degree. Experience and education satisfying this requirement must be active professional practice, which is paid/non-paid employment as a professional social worker, as defined by the appropriate state licensing board. Quality of Experience. Experience is only creditable if it is obtained following graduation with a master's degree in social work and if it includes work as a professional social worker directly related to the position to be filled. Qualifying experience must also be at a level comparable to social work experience at the next lower level. Part-Time Experience. Part-time experience is creditable according to its relationship to the full-time work week. For example, one week of full-time credit is equivalent to two weeks of part-time work. Fellowships or Post-Graduate Training. Fellowship and post-graduate training programs are typically in a specialized area of clinical practice, i.e., group or family practice. Training as a fellow or post-graduate may be substituted for creditable experience on a year-for-year basis. Practicum in a VA Setting. A VHA practicum experience may not be substituted for experience, as the practicum (field placement) is completed prior to graduation with a master's degree in social work. Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. Senior Social Worker, GS-12 (1) Experience/Education. The candidate must have at least two years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which, one year must be equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Senior social workers have experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment. Senior social workers are experts in their specialized area of practice. Senior social workers may have certification or other post-masters training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship or equivalent supervised professional experience in a specialty. (2) Licensure/Certification. Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination, unless they are grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure. (3) Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: (a) Skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations. This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management. (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. (c) Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty area, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes. (d) Ability to provide specialized consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients in the service delivery area, as well as role modeling effective social work practice skills. (e) Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the social work profession, and to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the service delivery area. (4) Assignments. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty), and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. 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. This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management. This assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12, which is the actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for. Physical Requirements: Work is sedentary but also demands standing, walking, bending, twisting, and carrying light items. 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: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. 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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/. 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.
