Therapy Assistant-Recreation

Summary

This position is assigned to the Recreation Therapy Service, Eastern Kansas Health Care System (EKHCS) in Topeka, Kansas. The employee works in various areas throughout the facility including, Community Living Center, Mental Health, and Domiciliary serving as a Recreation Therapy Assistant.

Duties

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Major duties include, but may not be limited to the following: Implements recreation therapy treatment interventions for patients with physical and mental health conditions under the supervision of a Recreation Therapist. Conducts individual and small-group recreation therapy activities, using both standard and nonstandard treatment procedures and approaches. Assists Recreation Therapists with planning and implementing treatment programs designed to address patients' individual treatment needs and treatment plans. Modifies and adapts therapeutic activities, procedures, and schedules based on patients' disabilities, abilities, treatment priorities, and changing needs. Provides therapeutic equipment, materials, instruction, encouragement, and counseling necessary to support patients' participation in recreation therapy activities. Conducts bedside and facility-based recreation therapy programs, including individualized programs based on patients' interests, attitudes, motivation, illnesses, and disabilities. Assists with patient assessments and development of treatment plans in collaboration with the Recreation Therapist. Coordinates and escorts patients to community recreation therapy activities, including transporting patients and assisting ambulatory and non-ambulatory patients with entering/exiting vehicles and navigating community environments. Observes and evaluates patient participation and response to treatment, including progress or regression, and adjusts activities as appropriate within assigned responsibilities. Documents recreation therapy treatment in the patient's medical record, including interventions provided, duration, frequency, outcomes, patient response, goals/objectives, and information needed by the treatment team. Performs duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-Time, Tuesday through Saturday; 8:00 am to 4:30 pm - There may be times, (although rare) where coverage to opposite campus is expected. May be asked to work extended hours. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved.

Qualifications

English Language Proficiency Requirement: In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English. You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English in order to perform the duties of this position. Driver's License Requirement: A current, valid state-issued Driver's License is required for this position. NOTE: We cannot accept photographs, therefore; please do not submit a copy of your license with your application package. If an interview is requested, you will be required to provide a copy of your current, valid state-issued Driver's License. ~AND~ IN ADDITION TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AND DRIVER'S LICENSE REQUIREMENT, TO QUALIFY FOR THIS POSITION AT THE GS-6 GRADE LEVEL, YOU MUST ALSO MEET ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-5) in Federal Service, that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of a Therapy Assistant, and that is typically in or related to the work of this position. 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 patient care, social work, or psychology where the duties involved actual participation in physical medicine and activities of a hospital or clinic; and providing patient care based on practical knowledge of the modalities used in therapeutic recreation. NOTE: Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must clearly indicate the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment ~OR~ EDUCATION: Have successfully completed six months of graduate education, or an internship meets the specialized experience required only in those instances where it is directly related to the work of the Therapy Assistant position. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ COMBINATION: Have equivalent combinations of successfully completed directly related graduate education and specialized experience to qualify. NOTE: Transcripts (unofficial or official) must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. 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 for prolonged periods of time and over rough, uneven, or rocky surfaces; frequent bending, crouching, reaching, stooping, and stretching or similar activities to set up and take apart equipment and apparatus; recurring lifting of moderately heavy items such as bowling and sports equipment and repositioning patients, and pushing or pulling heavy objects. The work may require specific physical characteristics and abilities such as above-average agility and dexterity to perform intricate therapeutic procedures. The employee must be able to push wheelchair patients on level and inclined ground. The employee must be physically able to drive the station vehicles and pass the Occupational Health Clinic Motor Vehicle Operator Evaluation. Travel between campuses may be 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/.

Requirements

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. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 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) - See "Required Documents" below for details. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary 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, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. 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/.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13058583. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 09/18/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.