Addiction Therapist

Duties

As an Addiction Therapist the incumbent will have the following principal duties and responsibilities:

Counseling and Rehabilitation Services

• Provides ongoing individual, group and family substance use disorder counseling and education as necessary to facilitate a successful transition back to the community upon completion of the IOP.
• Conducts therapeutic short-term, in-depth counseling in accordance with specific guidelines.
• Conducts interviews, uses questionnaires or other measurement devices, or observes the patient to assess emotional, functional or psychological condition.
• Gathers social, drug, family and military history and reasons for referral.
• Prepares written assessments based on knowledge of patient's background and medical history for use by members of the interdisciplinary treatment team or for own use to develop treatment.
• Functions as primary care provider for patient during treatment in program.
• Manages individual patient's treatment plans. Direct services may also include consultation for patients who are being treated in medical/surgical, psychiatric, and other inpatient specialty services including the VAMC nursing home care unit.
• Direct services may include provision of crisis intervention for those with SUD diagnoses in this and other VAMC outpatient programs and clinics and/or inpatient units.
• Incumbent makes appropriate referral to community or other professional resources as necessary for effective rehabilitation.
• Conducts specialized mental health counseling and therapy, usually in a group setting (examples include Motivation Enhancement Therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapies).
• The incumbent performs all counseling and rehabilitation services at the level of clinical expert in the field of addiction counseling.
• Incumbent may supervise, as assigned other Addiction Therapists and Rehabilitation Technicians assuring delivery of high-quality counseling and rehabilitation services.

Work Schedule: Full-time (Mon-Fri) 07:30 AM TO 4 PM
Telework: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Addiction Therapist/PD2440A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process
• Participation in the seasonal influenza and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination programs are requirements for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/22/2023.

Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-9 level. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

PREFERRED EXP: License in Counseling. NOTE: Please submit a copy of your license with your application.

Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-9) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: (1) Independently meeting with clients for direct standardized assessment of substance abuse and mental health disorders such as psychiatric, affective, PTSD and personality disorders, as well as providing addiction and relapse prevention education services; (2) Providing direct inpatient and outpatient counseling services with minimal supervision to a broad range of veteran patients and their families; and (3) Assessing veterans care requirements, evaluating effectiveness of interventions, and recommending changes, developing new methods, or proposing new policies.

OR,

• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree

OR,

• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Communication
• Interpersonal Skills

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: Work is mostly sedentary, and the employee may sit comfortably. There will be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light to moderately heavy items (e.g., meeting materials), etc. Frequent center wide and community trips could be necessary. No unusual physical demands are placed on the incumbent. The work requires extreme patience and control of emotions. The work may require using appropriate techniques to de-escalate patients who present a danger to self or others; these techniques usually consist of verbal and psychological interventions. The work may require assisting physically ill or disabled clients and may include lifting them.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/ .

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html .

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified : applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/ .

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

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

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application .