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Summary
Serve as a Senior Social Worker within the PTSD Clinical Team (PCT) at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System (VASNHCS), functioning as an essential member of the multidisciplinary mental health team. In this role, independently delivers comprehensive, advanced-level mental health services including individual, group, family, and couples psychotherapy with a primary focus on the treatment of PTSD and co-occurring conditions in Veterans.
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Duties
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Major duties include but not limited to:

• Independently delivers comprehensive, advanced-level mental health services of significant scope and complexity, demonstrating senior-level clinical expertise and judgment, with a primary focus on the expert application of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies (EBP) for the treatment of PTSD and co-occurring conditions in Veterans.
• Demonstrates mastery in specialized interventions; serves as a clinical resource by offering expert consultation and guidance to colleagues, modeling exemplary social work practice, and developing innovative models of psychosocial assessment and intervention.
• Independently conducts comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments, rendering diagnoses of substance use, trauma-related, and mental health disorders, and formulating clinically sophisticated treatment recommendations and referrals.
• Integrates complex, multi-factorial causation into differential diagnosis and treatment planning including psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses exercising advanced clinical reasoning within approved clinical privileges.
• Independently formulates and executes individualized treatment plans in collaboration with the Veteran/family and interdisciplinary treatment team, applying clinical diagnostic and level of care tools to drive high-quality, patient-centered intervention.
• Delivers expert-level individual, group, family, and couples therapy utilizing a comprehensive range of evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions tailored to the complex and unique needs of the Veteran population, selected and applied in accordance with Veteran needs, preferences, and clinical presentation.
• Provides independent, advanced clinical care services including walk-in/crisis intervention, care coordination, psychoeducation, self-management resources, follow-up, and outreach ensuring proactive, personalized, and continuous care for high-acuity Veterans.
• Conducts rapid, expert-level crisis assessments and develops comprehensive crisis management plans, adhering to VA Medical Center protocols including mandatory reporting to Adult and Child Protective Services.
• Screens, triages, and accepts complex cases referred to PCT, applying senior-level clinical judgment to determine appropriate treatment disposition or referral to the most suitable treatment site.
• Provides intensive, advanced mental health services to Veterans presenting with complex, multifaceted psychosocial and environmental challenges across diverse socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.
• Applies comprehensive knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, treatment procedures, pharmacology, and medical terminology to inform clinically sophisticated, integrated treatment planning .
• Cultivates and leverages VA and community resources, providing expert consultation to interdisciplinary health care professionals on the psychosocial dimensions of Veteran care.
• Serves as an active leader in PCT program planning, interdisciplinary team meetings, rounds, and conferences; proactively identifies service gaps and spearheads development of VA and community resources to address unmet treatment needs
• Employs measurement-based care to rigorously monitor treatment progress, drive clinical decision-making, and facilitate optimal outcomes for Veterans.
• Designs and implements advanced methods for evaluating the effectiveness of social work practice, utilizing outcome data to improve treatment services, lead performance improvement initiatives, identify systems redesign opportunities, and inform strategic, data-driven system changes within PCT.
• Develops and executes clinically appropriate discharge plans from PCT, ensuring seamless care transitions and continuity of services.
• Leads and actively contributes to program and quality improvement reviews, professional peer review, and VA performance measure compliance, championing a culture of excellence and accountability within the PCT.
• Provides specialized consultation to colleagues and trainees on the mental health and trauma treatment of Veterans in the outpatient setting, as well as role models effective social work practice skills.

Work Schedule: 8:00am - 4:30pm Monday - Friday
Telework: This position is eligible for telework on an Ad- Hoc Basis
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
Requirements
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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.
• 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 identification 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).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
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 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/.
• English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f).

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). Grandfathering Provision: The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation.

• All persons employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply:
• Such employees in an occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions.
• Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard.
• Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation.
• If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. 7401(3) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation.

NOTE: If social workers covered under the grandfathering provision of the 1991 Federal law regarding licensure or certification of VHA social workers leave the GS-0185 social work series, they lose the grandfathering protection. If they choose to return at a later date to the GS-0185 series, they must be licensed or certified to qualify for employment as a social worker.
Grade Determinations:
Senior Social Worker, GS-12
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.
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.
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:

• 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.
• Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39, Social Worker Qualification Standard, GS-0185, Veterans Health Administration, dated September 10, 2019.
Driver's License: Candidate must have a current state issued driver's license.
The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12.
Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019 Employee Occupational Health Service
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
Receiving Service Credit for 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. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This