Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Specialist

RESPONSABILITIES AND TASKS

1. TECHNICAL SUPPORT, MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION OF MHPSS SERVICES

Provide technical guidance and support for all MHPSS activities, including all layers of service provision from low intensified interventions to specialized and focused mental health interventions in accordance to the NMHP designed documents as well as other available global documents;

Design standard indicators and tools to monitor and measure the quality, impact and effectiveness of MHPSS programming and ensure piloting and revision of those tools are in place of practice.

Through regular visits to area of responsibilities, ensure coherence and harmony of MHPSS services (including mental health consultations, individual and group psychosocial support activities, information sharing and awareness raising sessions and outreach activities) across the mission;

Support the development of MHPSS toolkits (i.e. event description forms, data tracker tools, assessment and evaluation tools) with appropriate resources and guidelines for the provision of scalable and non-scalable interventions for the specific target groups including women and girls, men and boys, elderly community members and persons with special needs;

Provide technical support to Psychologist(s) and Social Worker(s) for the management of cases with special needs such as SGBV survivors, child protection cases, persons with MNS conditions (i.e. Mental neurological and substance use disorders);

Closely work with the Protection Coordinator and Inclusion Advisor to ensure that the MHPSS activities are designed in consideration of the age, gender and disability sensitivity and to identify specific criteria for enhancing the inclusiveness of the MHPSS implementation;

Collaborate with the Medical Specialists and Deputy Health Coordinators to ensure that the mental health services are well integrated with the existing health services in all stages of intervention from screening, service provision and evaluation of services;

Elaborate the necessary logistic planning and arrangements for the execution of the planned activities in consultation with MHPSS Team Managers;

Coordinate with partner agencies in the provision and referral of services and ensure a close collaborative relationship with other MHPSS, Protection and Health actors.

2. CAPACITY BUILDING AND TECHNICAL SUPERVISION

Work together with the MHPSS Teams and PHCCs’ health staff to better identify training needs and collaborate with MHPSS Coordinator to design a training programme for the MHPSS department of PU-AMI;

Provide basic technical trainings and refreshers to MHPSS, Protection and Health teams of PU-AMI based on the identified capacity building needs while including the participants from PHCCs and from other organizations where PU-AMI has been working in a Consortium;

Provide on job training for MHPSS Team members regarding NMHP strategy for the integration of MHPSS services, clinical supervision, psychosocial support as well as monitoring and evaluation of MHPSS activities;

Support the process of developing technical guidance for the integration of MHPSS information into the Phenics;

Establish peer-to-peer support groups among the MHPSS teams and within the specific positions among the different fields to allow for peer-to-peer exchange while assuring mutual learning through participatory facilitation;

In coordination with the MHPSS Coordinator, support to contextualize and adapt internal and global guidelines, and make sure that they are being rolled out and known by relevant staff. 3. DATA COLLECTION, REPORTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

Conduct participatory MHPSS needs and situation analyses on a frequent base to better understand constantly changing needs among the targeted community members as well as inform the programme accordingly;

In coordination with the MHPSS Coordinator, design and develop community based, inclusive and evidence based MHPSS interventions while ensuring the quality of standards are in place regarding to the Minimum Service Package for MHPSS services;

Follow up on the internal data entry tools and their accuracy with the MHPSS Team Managers one a weekly basis and support the MHPSS Coordinator in collecting, storing and analyzing the MHPSS data on a monthly basis;

With the support of the MHPSS Coordinator follow the progress, challenges and achievements towards project targets and indicators in MHPSS activities and inform MHPSS Coordinator of any serious challenge in this regards;

Review and provide inputs for the weekly narrative reports for each MHPSS Team;

Facilitate the data collection process by creating or updating the existing the data entry tools in close coordination with MEAL Department and NMHP while following the IASC Common Monitoring and Evaluation for MHPSS Services.

4. NETWORKING AND PARTNERSHIP

Maintain collaborative working relationships with MHPSS Task Force in Lebanon as well as sustain a close coordination with the representatives of NMHP;

Represent PU-AMI’s MHPSS Department together or in the absence of MHPSS Coordinator;

Maintain a network with MHPSS focal points of other missions and other organizations to share best practices and resources;

Map and establish relations with mental health agencies in Lebanon to develop and strengthen referral pathways and procedures for cases requiring specialized mental health care, psychiatric services and/or hospitalization and psychosocial support services.

The tasks and responsibilities defined in this job description can evolve depending on the project’s needs.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

Language Skills: Fluent in English and Arabic (speaking/reading/writing).

Education Degree: MA in Clinical Psychology with a license to practice clinical psychology from the Ministry of Public Health or MA in Social Psychology or Psychological Counseling.

Strong theoretical, technical and practical knowledge of MHPSS including:

- Being certified with a diploma programme called as ‘Development and Organization of Mental Health Services’ organized by NMHP, World Health Organization and Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health would be an asset for the deployment.
- Trained on and able to provide supervision on scalable MHPSS interventions (PFA, PM+ individual or group, Self Help +, Inter Personal Group Therapy, Thinking Healthy)
- Ability to provide technical input into the design, implementation and evaluation of MHPSS programmes.
- Ability to provide training and guidance on clinical assessments and clear case formulation.
- Ability to use and provide training on standardized assessment tools.
- Experience in applying integrated MHPSS services in health and other potential settings.
- Experience developing and facilitating training programmes and standard operating procedures on MHPSS.

Work experience:
- At least 3-5 years of experience in NGOs;
- Knowledge of the project cycle and development of logical frameworks; ability to monitoring key quality assurance indicators

Computer Skills: Excellent knowledge of the MS office software including Word, Excel, Outlook, HIS MoPH

Other requirements:
- Valid driving license;
- Management and pedagogical skills;
- Innovative, able to mobilize/motivate and coach personnel;
- Self-motivatingn and working with minimal supervision is required
- Good knowledge of Lebanon districts’ geography, willing to travel locally;
- Literacy in reporting;
- Knowledge of Health Information Systems use in different project of MoPH is an asset.

Assets

Interest:
- Work in relief, interest for social issues;
- Strong motivation to help people in need.

Transversal skills
- Excellent communication, conflict solving and diplomacy skills to manage relationship in potentially tense situations;
- Understanding of the political situation in the area;
- Ability to analyze and suggest improvements of the activities;
- Ability to adapt or change priorities according to the changing situation within the mission or the organization itself;
- Well organized and hard worker;
- Able to manage stress and pressure;
- Able to check information,
- Logical;
- Neutral.