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HUD VASH Senior Social Worker

Employer
USAJobs
Location
Washington, D.C
Closing date
Mar 11, 2021
Duties

Summary

Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) is an intensive case management program for chronically homeless and vulnerable Veterans aimed at providing psychosocial services to Veterans seeking or residing in stable housing through HUD's Section 8 voucher system. The HUD-VASH Senior Social Worker serves as a member of an interdisciplinary care team for HUD-VASH Veterans and functions as the primary case manager for a group of Veterans enrolled in the program.
Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

The HUD-VASH Senior Social Worker serves as a liaison between the VA and community partners including housing authorities, property management, and governmental or non-profit partners; they may be the primary VA representative for community partnerships or geographic regions and are expected to practice independently.

Coordination of case management services for veterans receiving housing provided through HUD Section 8 housing vouchers.
  • Provides clinical psychosocial and case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible veterans and their family members to meet biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs.
  • Continuous coordination with the community's homeless providers and coalitions as well as with other local, state, and federal agencies.
  • Responsible for the assessment, identification, facilitation and referral to appropriate medical and psychiatric services to those veterans identified as appropriate for the HUD/VASH program.
  • Evaluates the veteran's situation, abilities, and capabilities, and arrives at a reasoned conclusion including an assessment of vulnerability and prioritization for admission.
  • Assesses at-risk factors and develops a preliminary plan, involving the veteran and family or significant others, and performs an insightful assessment of serious and complicated cases involving psychiatric illness which may also include, catastrophic medical condition, dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and other high risks diagnoses.
  • Collects and reviews all data, subjective and objective and makes a clinical assessment, identifying needs and strengths.
  • Conducts psychosocial assessment, the incumbent uses professional judgment and advanced practice skills to make a psychosocial diagnosis for referral and treatment planning.
  • Uses advanced clinical training, insight, and experience to interpret data and to identify viable treatment options, including assessment for eligibility and clinical appropriateness of a HUD/VASH program admissions or subsequent discharge.
  • Coordinates the screening and admission multi-disciplinary team and provides primary input for program candidates.
  • Assesses high risk factors, acuity, and need for services.
  • Makes appropriate referral to community-based agencies, CBOCs and local VAMC based services.
    • Act as a consultant to other team/staff members and take a lead clinical role in case consultation and Provide supervision to students, interns, or unlicensed Social Workers as requested
    • Conducts regular home visits to all Veterans on caseload
    • Maintain familiarity and responsibility for all HUD-VASH performance measures. Assist in development and maintenance of operational plans and strategic goals related to these measures.
    • Collects and Reviews all data, subjective and objective and makes a clinical assessment, identifying needs and strengths.
    • Document all Veteran care in the electronic health record in accordance with facility policy, VHA Directive 1162.05 (and revisions), and program-specific SOPs.
    • Maintain familiarity and responsibility for all HUD-VASH performance measures. Assist in development and maintenance of operational plans and strategic goals related to these measures.
    • Participates in the screening and admission multi-disciplinary team and provides primary input for program candidates.
    • Assesses high risk factors, acuity, and need for services.
    • Ensure compliance with standards and expectations of Joint Commission, CARF, and other relevant accrediting bodies. Assist program leadership in accreditation preparation and continuous readiness activities as requested.
    • Provide consultation and psychoeducation to Veterans and Veteran families on topics including community resources, Advance Directives, VA benefits, budgeting, activities of daily living, and recovery goals.
    • The HUD-VASH Senior Social Worker may also be assigned to do the following:
    • Provide outreach services to engage homeless Veterans.
    • Serve as the primary VA point of contact for a project-based housing site, a geographical region, or a community agency- with the bulk of work performed in these community-based settings.
    • Provide oversight of a contract serving homeless Veterans as a Contracting Officer Representative (COR).
    • The HUD-VASH Senior Social Worker may also be assigned to do the following:
      • Provide outreach services to engage homeless Veterans.
      • Serve as the primary VA point of contact for a project-based housing site, a geographical region, or a community agency- with the bulk of work performed in these community-based settings.
      • Provide oversight of a contract serving homeless Veterans as a Contracting Officer Representative (COR).

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8am to 4:30pm
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Travel Required

25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
None

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

  • You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
  • Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
  • Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
  • You may be required to serve a probationary period
  • Subject to a background/security investigation
  • Must be proficient in written and spoken English
  • Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process


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.
  • 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 masters 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/.
Additonal Requirements for the GS-12 Level:
  • Experience and Education. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressively more professional competency. 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.
  • Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as social worker program coordinator must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level, and must be able to provide supervision for licensure.
  • Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
(a) Knowledge of program coordination and administration which includes consultation, negotiation, and monitoring.(b) Knowledge and ability to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines for the program.(c) Ability to supervise multidisciplinary staff assigned to the program.(d) Skill in organizing work, setting priorities, meeting multiple deadlines, and evaluating assigned program area(s).(e) Ability to provide training, orientation, and guidance within clinical practice.
May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

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. Program coordinators at the GS-12 grade level are administratively responsible for a clinical program providing treatment to Veterans in a major specialty area, such as but not limited to: Spinal Cord Injury, Homeless Continuum Veteran Program, Hospice and Palliative Care Program, Suicide Prevention Program, Veterans Justice Outreach, Caregiver Support Program and Community Nursing Home Program. The program coordinator may be the sole practitioner in this specialty at the facility and typically provide direct patient care services in the program area. The program coordinator oversees the daily operation of the program, develop policies and procedures for program operation, and prepare reports and statistics for facility, VISN, and national use. They may be responsible for the program's budget, developing and monitoring staff compliance with practice, standards and guidelines on documentation, workload, data entry, ethical practice and service delivery. The program coordinator provides analysis and evaluation of clinical program data and computerized programs to identify system-wide trends and needs to enhance the quality of service. They may be responsible for, or contribute to, the program's resource and fiscal management, monitoring control points developing the annual budget, operating within that budget, and accounting for appropriated funds. The program coordinator is administratively responsible for the clinical programming and prepares reports and statistics for facility, VISN, and national use. They provide leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned staff. They initiate and conduct a variety of program or service audits and complete designated clinical practice audits and reports, including productivity assessments. They oversee program operations and evaluations, identifying areas for improvement, gathering relevant data, assessing the data, developing and implementing ideas for improvement and evaluating efficacy of improvement efforts.

References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39

The full performance level of this vacancy is 12.

Physical Requirements: The physical demands of this position involve active listening, reading, observing and evaluating verbal and nonverbal behavior, walking, speaking, bending, carrying light items such as paper, books, small parts, writing reports, writing clinical notes, using office equipment such as computers, telephones, fax machines, photocopy machines, and possibly driving an automobile. Some work is performed in a clinical setting that exposes the incumbent to the communicable disease common of the homeless population. Strenuous physical activity is not required.

Education

IMPORTANT: 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

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

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

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.

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.

If you are unable to apply online view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application .

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Your application, résumé, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

NOTE: A formal pay-setting process will be used to determine your salary. The salary may be at any point in the range listed for this vacancy.

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.

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

Trust determination process
Credentialing , Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

  • Proof of Social Work Licensure
  • VA Form 10-2850C
  • Resume
  • SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
  • Transcript


VA Form 10-2850c Application for Associated Health Occupations can be found at: http://www.va.gov/vaforms/search_action.asp?FormNo=2850&tkey=&Action=Search .

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please use this checklist to ensure you have included all documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), etc.

  • Cover Letter
  • Proof of Social Work Licensure
  • Other Supporting Documents
  • VA Form 10-2850C
  • Resume
  • Separation Notice (RIF)
  • SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
  • Transcript


If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.

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