Senior Social Worker

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Major Duties and Responsibilities of the position.

• Interviews veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the veteranssituation presenting problems and their causes and the impact of such problems on the veterans functioning and health as part of a psychosocial assessment. Is familiar with VA treatment and benefit programs.
• Uses subjective and objective data in making clinical assessment of the veterans needs. Effectively uses professional skill objectivity and insight. Uses advanced clinical training and experience to identify viable treatment options and makes appropriate referrals for care.
• Has the ability to serve veterans as inpatients or outpatients who often have severe crises lack family or community supports frequently fail to comply with instructions and treatment or have significant deficits in coping skills and require continuing professional psychological support.
• Independently evaluates the clients situation including the veterans reaction and ability to deal with it and arrives at a reasoned conclusion. Based on the psychosocial assessment uses professional judgment and advanced practice skills to make a psychosocial diagnosis. Assesses at-risk factors and develops a preliminary disposition plan involving the veteran and family or significant others. Assesses serious and complicated cases involving psychiatric illness catastrophic medical conditions dementia and other high risk diagnoses. Makes independent professional decisions and recommendations for treatment. Consequences to the veteran may be serious and the results are often unpredictable.
• On an inpatient/outpatient basis finds a suitable means of treatment to help veterans and/or significant others cope with stressful situations. Treatment is aimed at helping veterans find practical solutions to problems.
• Develops psychosocial treatment plans in coordination with interdisciplinary team members including goals for treatment. Using known available resources and the initial assessment of the veterans likelihood to accept differing types of assistance makes initial and continuing decisions regarding use of VA and non-VA services and referrals. Arrives at a reasoned conclusion as to the preferred course of agency action. Provides independent consultation and makes recommendations to interdisciplinary team on course of treatment.

• 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 ( Effective May 7 2025 drivers licenses or state-issued identification 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.

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 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

• 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.

• 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.