Health Psychology Job Expansion In The VA System

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Therapist4Chnge

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This came across my e-mail today, and I thought it may be of interest to people. While the jobs are aimed at more senior level health psychologists, I think it highlights psychology's important role in primary care and preventative care. President Obama made reference to improving VA care last night, and this is one of the positive changes that has resulted.


The announcement, with my bolding:

Anticipated Nationwide Openings for Health Psychologists in the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs is launching an initiative to enhance health promotion and disease prevention services to Veterans in primary care, using a patient-centered medical home model. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recognizes the role that unhealthy behaviors play in the development and maintenance of many chronic diseases. To support efforts focusing on assisting patients in making health behavior changes, VHA will be hiring a Health Behavior Coordinator for each of its 153 medical centers.

The Health Behavior Coordinator (HBC) position is targeted for applicants with significant training and experience in health psychology/behavioral medicine (grade to be determined by the Psychology Professional Standards Board but anticipated for the GS-13 level). The Health Behavior Coordinator will serve several roles. First, the HBC will train, mentor, and guide primary care and other staff members to support patient self management of health-related behaviors via effective health behavior coaching and the use of motivational interviewing and other empirically-based communication and health behavior management approaches. Training curriculum, models, and formats for providing this training are under development. Thus, the HBC will have a significant role as a consultant for clinical staff members who promote patient self-management of health behavior. Second, the HBC will work closely with a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program Manager to develop new or adapt existing VHA programs, guide implementation, and coordinate evaluations to determine the efficacy of health promotion and disease prevention programs at the medical center. In this role, the HBC will serve as co-chair of the facility HPDP Program Committee. Third, the HBC will participate in some group and individual health promotion interventions such as smoking cessation and weight management, providing or co-providing direct patient care. Fourth, the HBC will carry out discipline-specific health psychology assessments (e.g., pre-bariatric surgery psychological assessments). The position also provides time for research and teaching.

Recently, mental health services in VHA have undergone significant expansion, with the employment of Integrated Mental Health staff in the Primary Care Center to facilitate mental health care within the general medical setting. The new HBC position is independent of this recent mental health expansion. While the HBC is targeted to promote the health of all VHA patients rather than focusing only on patients with mental illness, the HBC coordinator will collaborate with mental health peers within and outside of primary care, particularly in areas of overlap such as stress management.

Each VHA Medical Center will be posting these positions over the next few months. When officially announced by the Human Resources section of the Medical Centers, positions for the specific facilities will be posted on USAJOBS.gov. If interested, you are encouraged to register on USAJOBS. This secure federal government site allows you to have position announcements sent to your email address on a weekly basis. You may also pre-complete necessary forms for quick and easy application to posted positions. The position series for psychologists is GS-0180. Depending upon how a facility posts the position, other disciplines with significant experience in behavioral medicine may also be considered.

The US Dept. of Veterans Affairs went through a major transformation in the 1990’s. More recently, mental health services have also expanded substantially. Several independent groups have recognized VA as a leader in quality healthcare (e.g., The Best Care Anywhere). Staff satisfaction among VA employees is very high, with excellent benefits and opportunities for advancement. With this expansion, VHA is expected to become the largest single employer of behavioral health/health psychology experts. Our nation’s heroes have earned their care through their service to our country. If you have the training, experience, and desire to promote health and prevent disease in Veterans, please consider joining the VHA team.

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Sorry for the dead-thread bump...

Im wondering if anyone has completed an Primary Care / Mental Health Integration practicum at a VA or other setting. Im set up to begin a prac in this setting at a VA, and am looking for Lit. recommendations prior to beginning.

Any ideas of good sources speaking to the role of psychologists in integrated primary care settings?

Thanks!
ps. pretty pumped about this opportunity.

:thumbup::thumbup::soexcited:
 
Sorry for the dead-thread bump...

Im wondering if anyone has completed an Primary Care / Mental Health Integration practicum at a VA or other setting. Im set up to begin a prac in this setting at a VA, and am looking for Lit. recommendations prior to beginning.

Any ideas of good sources speaking to the role of psychologists in integrated primary care settings?

Thanks!
ps. pretty pumped about this opportunity.

:thumbup::thumbup::soexcited:

Yes. I will get with one of my old supervisors for reading recs, but suffice to say you really can't go wrong, cause you see everything under the sun in ICT clinics.

Might be best to read-up on short-term stuff like CBT-I and an anger mangement protocol-as well as brief CBT models for depression. Know how to handle crisis situations (SI/HI) and how to triage. Know how to do a good clinical interview in 50 minutes and write quick but infmative intake notes.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Frank, McDaniel, & Bray put out a pretty good text called, "Primary Care Psychology". I also recommend reading some of the staple PC journal articles. I did my rotation a few years ago, but I can dig up some citations if you'd like. It will also behoove you to develop a good (but effecient) clinical interview, as you are likely to see more people in an average day than you would in a traditional out-pt. setting. I'm not sure what responsibilities you'll have at the practica level, but I'm guessing you'll handle a lot of the positive depression/ptsd/etc. screens from nursing for the veterans who come in for checkups/physicals.
 
The VA is slowly expanding more and more psychologists into primary care, and if you look for jobs posted on USAJOBS.gov, there are typically lots of primary care psychologist openings. I will be completing a post-doc with the VA in integrated primary care, so I'm hoping the training will help secure me a spot in this area. :) "Primary Care Psychology" by Frank, et. al. is a good book on learning how psychologists integrate into primary care, and there are plenty more books out there that I am waiting to get my hands on. Its a slowly expanding field, but I believe the VA will continue heading in this direction under the Patient Centered Medical Home Model.
 
The VA is slowly expanding more and more psychologists into primary care, and if you look for jobs posted on USAJOBS.gov, there are typically lots of primary care psychologist openings. I will be completing a post-doc with the VA in integrated primary care, so I'm hoping the training will help secure me a spot in this area. :) "Primary Care Psychology" by Frank, et. al. is a good book on learning how psychologists integrate into primary care, and there are plenty more books out there that I am waiting to get my hands on. Its a slowly expanding field, but I believe the VA will continue heading in this direction under the Patient Centered Medical Home Model.

Telehealth is also the next boom area in the VA system. I've interviewed for several so far.
 
what about developmental psychologists? are they able to get jobs at the VA?
 
what about developmental psychologists? are they able to get jobs at the VA?

Experimental psychologists (such as developmental psychologists, cognitive psychologists, social psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists) may have some peripheral association with research projects and/or labs in the VA system. Often those VAs that are affiliated with medical schools and large R1 universities. But, no, they are cannot be staff psychologists who work with patients because developmental psychologist have no clinical training and are not licensed to provide any clinical services.
 
you may want to get on the division 38 primary care listserve if you haven't already--a great resource and all the biggies post on it
 
I've been watching and I haven't exactly seen a flood of positions in telehealth and/or Health Behavior Coordinator positions over the past few years at the VA. Of course, I'm comparing this idea of a "boom" in telehealth positions to the deluge of positions I remember I saw when I was applying for jobs just post-9/11, when it seemed like the VA was hiring like mad.

I personally am very much looking forward to getting one of those positions in the future, I've been building my CV very deliberately in that direction for the past 3-4 years and if I find one that's geographically compatible for my needs I'll be jumping on it big time.
 
VA jobs can be very "hurry up and wait", so what JeyRo is doing is really smart.

Thanks!

It's all about having a long term vision for one's career, I figure. I don't want to be a GS-13 clinician for the rest of my life, I don't consider that a sustainable formula for job security given the eventual, inevitable invasion of the MFTs and MFCs at the VA who will likely be hired for many of the positions currently being filled by psychologists right now.

So, I figure a Health Behavior Coordinator (HBC) position is a really good position to have if you want to later position yourself for any number of career paths. The supervisory / administrative aspects of the job are great if one wants to later throw their hat into the ring for a GS-14 type position, or perhaps in administration at a medical school, what have you. The telehealth aspects make one very desirable for any number of future positions, such as at health-services startups. The fact that these positions also require program development, program evaluation, and educative roles of the HBC's seem to make one more desirable for academic / research positions as well. Lots of possibilities with the HBC positions, IMHO.
 
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