Therapy Assistant

The VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System is recruiting for a Therapy Assistant. The Therapy Assistant will function in Recreation Therapy Service. The incumbents performs a crucial role in supporting the primary recreation therapist or creative arts therapist in carrying out treatment services for Veterans with complex medical, physical, behavioral and/or mental deficits.

The Therapy Assistant duties include, but are not limited to:

• Communicates and treats customers (Veterans, their representatives, visitors, and all VA staff) in a courteous, tactful, and respectful manner.
• Plans and carry out highly specialized and diversified treatment of a wide variety of acutely and clinically complex medical patients.
• Plans, implement, and conduct ongoing highly specialized and diversified recreation therapy treatment interventions for patients with varying degrees of impairments.
• Independently applies wide-ranging knowledge of recreation therapy concepts, principle, practices, procedures, roles, strategies, techniques, and treatment interventions/ modalities.
• Informs the patient of his/her responsibility in the collection of assessment information and seeks collaboration in the process.
• Possess broad knowledge of the human body, psychology and the characteristics of physical and mental illness.
• Employs broad knowledge of medical terminology, recreation therapy, social recreation, activity therapy, therapeutic techniques, and fundamental sciences such as physiology, anatomy pathology, and psychology.
• Applies the rehabilitation process in meeting the needs of the patient and exercises judgment in making recurrent and wide-ranging changes in procedures and approaches to enable the patient to achieve maximum rehab potential rather than yielding to their disabilities.
• Applies specialized skill in the application, implementation, and conducting of evidence-based strategies, modalities, and interventions such as but not limited to fitness and wellness, activity and leisure development, recovery support, conflict/ problem resolution, adjustment to disability, assistive technology, and community access

Work Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday 8a-4:30p, 11a-7:30p, rotating holidays and weekends
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Therapy Assistant/PD94169A
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 calendar days of the closing date listed on the announcement, 06/22/2026.

• 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-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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.

• Applicants must be eligible under the VA Interchange Agreement, having served continuously for at least one year in the other merit system under this interchange agreement. For more information regarding the VA Interchange Agreement please visit: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-authorities/competitive-hiring/.

• All Title 38 Veterans Canteen Service (VCS) employees must have served in their Excepted Service position for at least 90 days in order to be eligible for a position within the Competitive Service.

• Applicants who were previously selected under a Competitive Delegating Examining Office (DEO) announcement must have served in their position for at least 90 days prior to being eligible for other positions within the Competitive Service.

This occupational series has an Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR). In order to meet the IOR you must meet the following:

• Specialized Experience (For positions at GS-4 and above): Examples of qualifying specialized experience include work as an assistant to one of the specialized therapies such as occupational, physical, manual arts, corrective, or educational therapy; or experience gained as an assistant or aid in social work, or psychology where the duties involved actual participation in physical medicine and activities of a hospital or clinic.

In addition to the qualifications and IOR above, you must also meet the following: above you must also have:

• 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 would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge of recreation therapy processes and programs; assists with implementing treatment plans for patients; working with patients one on one or in small group settings; provides assistance to recreation therapist; and assists with creating patient notes in their electronic medical record.

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/.

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• Physical Requirements: The position involves moderately heavy lifting of physically impaired patients while assisting with ambulation duties. The work requires regular and recurring physical exertion such as long periods of standing or walking; frequent bending, crouching, reaching, and stretching or similar activities to set up take apart equipment and apparatus; recurring lifting of moderately heavy items and repositioning patients. Must be able to push wheelchair patients on level and inclined ground. A pre-placement physical examination is not required.
• 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 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's 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)

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• 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.

Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.