About This Role
This role involves providing housing and case management services to homeless veterans through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veteran Affairs (VA) program. The incumbent oversees, monitors, and administers the program, serving as the primary contact with local Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and coordinating veteran care with various health providers and agencies. The position suits a social worker who can provide services in both field locations and medical centers, directly supporting veterans in community housing settings.
Responsibilities
- Plan, develop and maintain a network of relationships with community resources and other advocates for the homeless to effectively screen and identify veteran members of the homeless population
- Interview potential clients, interpret VHA guidelines and eligibility requirements, and complete a psychosocial history, assessment, and individual treatment plan
- Provide guidance and emotional support, as well as maintain effective therapeutic relationships with Veterans and/or their families
- Establish and maintain positive working relationships with employees, volunteers, consumers, and stakeholders within the VA and outside community agencies
- Contribute to policy formulation and participate in establishing procedures within the assigned service area
- May be assigned supervisory responsibility for one or more student trainees
Requirements
- U.S. citizenship
- English Language Proficiency
- Master’s degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE)
- Licensure or certification by a state to independently practice social work at the master’s degree level
- Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level (LCSW or equivalent), which included an ASWB advanced generalist or clinical examination
- At least two years of experience in an area of specialized social work practice (for GS-12 Senior Social Worker)
- Advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex physical or mental illness
- Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice
- Ability to determine priority for services and provide specialized treatment services
- Advanced and expert skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations, including individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management interventions
- Advanced knowledge and expert skill 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
- Ability to coordinate the delivery of specialized psychosocial services and programs
- Ability to design system changes based on empirical findings
- Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients treated in the specialty area, rendering professional opinions based on experience and expertise and role modeling effective social work practice skills
- Ability to teach and mentor staff and students in the specialty area of practice and to provide supervision for licensure or for specialty certifications
- Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, demonstrating innovation in the creation of new models of psychosocial assessment or intervention to identify and address specialized clinical needs
- Ability to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the specialty population or specialty treatment program
Important Details
- Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM; weekends may be required
- Functional Statement Title/#: Social Worker (HUDVASH)/000000
About the Company
VA Handbook 5005/50, Part II, Appendix G39 provides references for this role.
