The Hershel "Woody" Williams VAMC is a fully accredited 80-bed acute medical and surgical care facility, offering primary care, outpatient mental health services, and subspecialty outpatient care. VA staffed community based outpatient clinics are located in Charleston, West Virginia, and Prestonsburg, Kentucky. In addition, outreach clinics are located in Gallipolis, Ohio and Lenore, West Virginia. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/01/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. Individual Occupational Requirement: For GS-4 and above, applicants are required to meet the Individual Occupational Requirements as listed below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience include: Group leader in community or residential recreation or training programs; Counselor in a youth summer camp; Instructor in a training program for the development of job skills; Work that demonstrated the ability to be responsible for and to lead and train members of a job crew; Group activities leader in the Armed Services; Unit leader-monitor-proctor for a dormitory group in a boarding school or other residential facility; Aid or assistant to professional or specialist staff in such fields as personnel (private or government), employment guidance in a vocational or academic institution, social service, or manpower development; Aid or assistant to professional or associate staff engaged in work of a social services nature in private, public welfare, government program, or community organizations, or in voluntary activities; Aid or assistant to professional or specialist staff working with individuals who are addicted to or abuse alcohol and/or drugs. Preferred Experience: Experience in Mental Health. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Customer Service Interpersonal Skills Oral Communication Decision Making Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Work is primarily performed while sitting, walking or driving. Although a significant amount of this work is sedentary, the incumbent must engage in bending, standing and walking with the utilization of good body mechanics. The work may involve stressful situations such as intervening in crisis situations. The employee accepts assignment on any tour of duty and in whatever nursing area that, services are required. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. ["The Mental Health Social Service Assistant serves as a member of the Mental Health Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (SARRTP) Team and provides extended care to disabled ambulatory Veterans with complex medical, psychiatric, alcohol and drug use, and homelessness problems. The Social Service Assistants provide 7-day/week, 24-hour/day coverage of the facility on a rotational basis. The Social Service Assistant performs both clinical and administrative duties in support of the mission of the SARRTP. Other duties include but are not limited to: Assists with the admission process for Veterans entering SARRTP establishing therapeutic relations with each Veteran. Interviews each resident to assess skills associated activities of daily living, leisure and work interests, personal hygiene, interpersonal communication, etc. Contributes to treatment team decisions concerning the therapeutic progress of Veterans. Responsible for reinforcing, setting limits, or educating Veterans in accordance with the established treatment plan and program guidelines. Advocates for Veteran's personal recovery needs/goals/plan as outlined in Veteran's Recovery plan; partners with Veterans in their early recovery efforts in understanding the value of recovery planning/goal setting/treatment participation. Explores aspects of this planning process with Veteran individually and in group settings. Assists Veteran in exploring core elements of recovery; its impact on mental, physical, social, legal and spiritual health and how to incorporate their strengths, supports and resources needed to achieve recovery in recovery planning. Veteran is responsible for Recovery planning, but benefits from navigational/facilitation skills of position. Utilizing strong relational skills, the position may act as a point of contact in exploration of these areas. Provides crisis intervention in situations of a medical, psychiatric and/or behavioral nature. Utilizing high degree of independent judgement, promptly assesses the situation and initiates appropriate action to secure medical care or police assistance. Utilizes appropriate precautions in cases of injury, potential suicide or infectious diseases. Conducts contraband searches of SARRTP Veterans' belongings at random, on admission, and when Veterans return from pass for health, welfare, safety and security purposes. Documents in the clinical record the interventions, discharges from the program, increased intensity, unusual behavior and/or incidents. Responds to coverage needs of the SARRTP resulting from unanticipated staff absence and inclement weather or emergencies. Develops a plan for coverage in consultation with other team members. Makes safety checks according to medical center policy to ascertain the well-being of SARRTP Veterans Inspects living area each shift to ensure that safety and other environmental problems are expeditiously resolved Work Schedule: Twelve (12) hour shifts, 7:00pm - 7:00am (nights) and twelve hour shifts 11:00am - 11:30pm (evenings). Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Social Services Assistant/PD210050 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required"]

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