Senior Social Worker

VA Careers - Social Work: Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

The incumbent in this senior social work position provides outreach services to Homeless veterans. The Social Worker is responsible for outreach services to homeless veterans in communities and rural areas distant from the Jack C Montgomery VA Medical Center. Assignments involve providing continuing social work services at a field location alone or with subordinate social work staff members without a supervisor available for consultation. Such assignments typically require extensive coordination of services with a wide range of residents of various communities such as local lawyers physicians and public officials and with local social agencies. Clients tend to have frequent and severe crises and lack a family or community support network. Clients also may be poor at self-monitoring and frequently fail to comply with medical or legal instructions. They may have significant deficits in coping skills and require continuing professional support.

List the major duties and responsibilities of the position:

1. Plan develop and maintains a network of relationships with community resources and other advocates for the homeless.
2. Utilizes knowledge of community resources makes referrals to the community and other government agencies as appropriate and coordinates services.
3. Provides clinical services guidance emotional support and other assistance to clients. Involves clients in individual or group counseling.
4. Interviews potential clients interprets VHA guidelines and eligibility requirements and completes a psychosocial history and assessment. Initiates eligibility determination and forwards to VA eligibility staff members. Establish an initial assessment at the time of the first visit. Develop an appropriate treatment plan.
5. Contributes to policy formulation and participates in establishing procedures within the assigned service area. Assists with Community Homelessness Assessment Local Education and Networking Groups surveys
6. Responds to Homeless National Call Center referrals Organizes and participates fully in various community projects
7. Assist with inspections of Health Care for Homeless Veteran contracted facilities as needed.
8. Advocates for Veterans experiencing homelessness with community partners.
9. Utilizes a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities in treatment or with specialized Veteran populations including individual group and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management.
10. Employs casework methods and techniques to maintain a therapeutic relationship with the client to work towards the best way of dealing with his/her problems.
11. Assumes responsibility for independent professional functioning and regularly works with a variety of complex cases within the assigned areas including selection of cases and determination of priorities based on assessment of the patient family and program needs requesting consultation in unusually difficult situations and problematical decisions.
12. Accountable for keeping the Homeless/CWT Program Manager and Chief of Social Work Service informed of administrative matters professional activities progress of work significant occurrences developments and plans and identifying problem areas that should be brought to the attention of the Program Manager.
13. May be assigned supervisory responsibility for one or more student trainees.
14. Assist with writing policies and procedures.

• 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.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• 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.
• 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:

1. 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.
2. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.