Mental Health-Gender Expert

Position: Mental Health-Gender Expert

Requirement:  Gendered capacity assessment

Project: “REFORM: Towards a strengthened quality response and inclusive and dignified durable solution for GBV survivors in Lebanon” Project

Duration: 12 months

Location: Beirut

Type of consultancy: Consultant with Knowledge and experience in Mental Health & Gender

About the project

ABAAD, through this project, intends to strengthen national systems capacities to enhance protection and mitigation of gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls in Lebanon among Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities, and to contribute to supporting vulnerable groups in displacement situations to be capacitated and empowered to move out of dependency on aid and choose a durable solution, as appropriate.  This project will also ensure opportunities for development, prevention, safety, and protection for women and girl survivors and at-risk of GBV in Lebanon through addressing and enhancing their abilities to cope with adversity, mitigate and deconstruct conflict in their direct environments and communities, and tackle the legislative frameworks and policies that affect them directly.

In February 2019, the Minister of Public Health (MoPH) Jamil Jabak announced the shutting down of a psychiatric hospital in south Lebanon’s Msaileh due to poor living conditions and inadequate facilities. This decision followed reports in local media that Al-Fanar Psychiatric Hospital lacked basic hygiene and was not equipped with adequate bedding or a heating system, despite the cold winter weather, which sparked widespread public outrage. Following allegations of misuse of funds from international donors, a ministerial decision was issued on February 25, 2019 to enrol all mental health professionals practicing in mental health facilities in mandatory trainings on Quality Assurance and Human Rights in line with the adopted guidelines of the World Health Organization. The ministerial decision tasked the National Mental Health Program (NMHP) with capacity development and stipulated that such trainings are a mandatory requirement for contracting mental health practitioners by MoPH. In light of these developments—and drawing on the pre-existing partnership between ABAAD, MoPH, and NMHP—NMHP sought ABAAD’s cooperation and support for a variety of activities. These activities entail carrying out an assessment of all Mental Health and Substance Use Rehabilitation facilities, working with them to improve their services, and to conduct a training for the staff on Gender Sensitivity, Safe Identification & Ethical Referral of GBV survivors, and Human Rights’ principles. As such, ABAAD proposes to include a gendered capacity assessment under the current proposal with RDPP for 2019-2021, and will sub-contract a consultant who is expert in the fields of Mental Health, Gender, and Quality Assurance, and supervise his/her work. The MoPH represented by the NMHP will be consulted and coordinated with throughout the process and will be expected to facilitate and provide safe access to needed information. The capacity assessment also falls within the framework of the operationalization of the National GBV SOP that was developed by ABAAD and endorsed by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2018 (to be formally launched in 2019 for its testing period), and which will be rolled out at the institutional and sectoral levels with the support of RDPP in 2019-2021. More specifically, Section II of the National GBV SOP on Quality and Operating Standards lays down the guidelines for upholding human rights of survivors and ensuring high quality and survivor-centered services provided to them. As such, the capacity assessment would be highly crucial in enhancing the quality service of engendered Mental Health in the country, and would also contribute to Output 1.1 by building on momentum for strengthening the national system.
 

Overall goal of this assignment

The overall goal of this assignment is to enhance the quality service of engendered Mental Health in the country in partnership with the National Mental Health Program

Duties and Responsibilities

• To produce a gendered capacity assessment of mental health facilities.
• The consultant will be responsible for conducting meetings and discussions sessions with experts from the Minister of Public Health (MoPH) ,the National Mental Health Program (NMHP) and the mental health facilities  
  

  Skills required

• Advanced university degree in relevant field such as Psychology, social work with experience in mental health, or another relevant degree.
• Expert with relevant work experience in the fields of mental health, gender, and quality assurance;
• Excellent communication skills; and
• Proven extensive experience in facilitating sessions and meetings for an audience with different backgrounds and varied levels of familiarity with topics related to mental health, gender, and human rights.
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