Supervisory Social Worker

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Supervisory Program Manager for the Substance Treatment and Recovery (STAR) program at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. The STAR Supervisory Program Manager is responsible for developing policies and practices to meet the goals of the therapy program as well as monitors to meet the goals.

Duties:
Operation and Management of the General Outpatient Mental Health Clinic at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center which includes the full responsibility for day-to-day management of the STAR Clinic (40% of time)

• Provide routine supervision training educational opportunities and programmatic oversight.
• Responsible for strategic planning to ensure the provision of high-quality services to meet the needs of the Veterans being served.
• Responsible for planning and developing and implementing short- and long-term goals and objectives consistent with the programs strategic plan. Oversight of administrative and programmatic resources and deploy those resources in support of the program needs.
• Develop and implement programs policies and procedures to meet program goals VHA policy and external accreditation requirements and monitor outcomes using data driven quality assurance processes and implement strategies for improvement based on data analysis.
• Participate fully in peer review assessing the quality of professional mental/behavioral health standards provided in the organization.
• Responsible for identification of patient problems requiring consultation with other multidisciplinary medical center staff and making appropriate referrals.
• Assures that appropriate referrals to specialty programs including community resources are accomplished. This may include ordering the following consults: Mental Health Service Programs (i.e. Substance Abuse PTSD Mental Health Intensive Case Management Compensated Work Therapy Homeless and Day Treatment) Vocational Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care. Fully accountable for practice including entering patient visits appropriate clinical documentation measuring outcomes to interventions and meeting productivity standards.
• Timely completion of all program evaluations and documents required by the Medical Center VISN and VACO ensuring compliance with appropriate accrediting bodies such as Joint Commission.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

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.
• 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 ( Effective May 7 2025 drivers licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• 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.

• 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.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:
The basic requirements for employment as a VHA social worker are prescribed by statute in 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(9) as amended by section 205 of Public Law 106-419 enacted November 1 2000. To qualify for appointment as a social worker in VHA all applicants must meet the following:

Citizenship.
Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3 section A paragraph 3g this part).

Education.
Have a masters 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 masters degree in social work. Verification of the degree can be made by going to 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 masters degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going to to Obtain License or Certification.
In all cases social workers must actively pursue meeting state prerequisites for licensure or certification starting from the date of their appointment. Failure to become licensed or certified within the prescribed amount of time will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment.

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.

English Language Proficiency.
Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f)

Grade Determinations:
In addition to the basic requirements for employment the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Supervisory Social Worker GS-13

Experience/Education. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills in a specialty area or in administration demonstrating progressively more professional competency and judgment. Candidate may have certification or other post-masters 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 supervisory social workers 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:

• Ability to independently organize work set priorities and meet multiple deadlines.
• Skill in a range of supervisory duties which includes clinical supervision consultation negotiation with other departments and quality improvement.
• Ability to ensure provision of clinical social work services by supervised social workers.
• Ability to delegate authority manage priorities coordinate work and follow up on pending issues to complete duties in an accurate and timely fashion.
• Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems develop and implement solutions that result in efficient operations and use data effectively to manage workload quality performance and productivity within the service.
• Ability to provide staff training and development.