Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.
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
SW Licensure Summary by State.
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).
Grade Determinations:
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.
References: ???????VA HANDBOOK 5005/120 PART II APPENDIX G39 SOCIAL WORKER QUALIFICATION STANDARD
GS-0185
The full performance level of this vacancy is 12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is 12.
Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational
Health Services.