Mental Health and Psychosocial project responsible – Ukraine – M/F

THE ALIMA ASSOCIATION

ALIMA’S ETHOS: ALIMA’s purpose is to save lives and provide care for the most vulnerable populations, without any discrimination based on identity, religion or politics, through actions based on proximity, innovation, and the alliance of organizations and individuals. We act with humanity and impartiality in accordance with universal medical ethics. To gain access to patients, we undertake to act in a neutral and independent manner.

Our CHARTER defines the VALUES and PRINCIPLES of our action :

1. Patient First – Patient centered medical care

2. Revolutionizing humanitarian medicine through research

3. Responsibility and freedom: encourage decision-making by those closest to patients

4. Commitment to a dynamic of continuous quality improvement

5. Creating a climate of trust among colleagues

6. Collective intelligence

7. Environmental liability

ALIMA promotes and defends the principles of fundamental human rights. ALIMA has a zero-tolerance approach to those guilty of acts of gender-based and sexual violence as well as to inaction in the face of alleged or proven acts of violence. Protecting the people who benefit and are impacted by our intervention is our top priority in everything we do. Anyone working with ALIMA is committed to :

● Respect the charter, the code of conduct, institutional policies including the policy of protection against abuses of power and gender-based and sexual violence, the policy of preventing corruption and fraud ;

● Report any violations to policies, framework documents and proceedings to a superior, referral

CARING – INNOVATING – TOGETHER :

Since its creation in 2009, ALIMA has treated more than 7 million patients. Today ALIMA works in 12 countries in Western and Central Africa. In 2020, we developed 41 humanitarian medical response projects to meet the needs of populations affected by conflict, epidemics and extreme poverty. All of these projects support national health authorities through nearly 357 health structures (including 45 hospitals and 312 health centers). We work in partnership, especially with local NGOs, whenever possible to ensure that our patients benefit from the expertise wherever it is, whether in their country or the rest of the world. In addition, to improve the humanitarian response, we are carrying out operational and clinical research projects, particularly in the field of the fight against malnutrition and hemorrhagic viral fevers. ALIMA is also leading operations in response to the covid-19 pandemic across all of our missions.

ALIMA’S TEAM: More than 2000 people currently work for ALIMA. The field teams, as close as possible to the patients, receive their support from the coordination teams generally based in the capitals of the countries of intervention. These receive support from the 4 desk teams and the emergency and opening service team based at the operational headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. The Paris and New York teams are actively working on fundraising as well as representing ALIMA. The rest of the ALIMA Galaxy includes individuals and partner teams who work on behalf of other organizations such as medical NGOs BEFEN, ALERTE Santé, SOS Médecins / KEOOGO, AMCP, research organizations PACCI, INSERM, Universities of Bordeaux or Copenhagen, the NGO Solidarités International and many others.

COUNTRIES WHERE WE WORK: Mali, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Guinea,South Sudan, Mauritania & Sudan.

THE WORK WE DO covers: Primary and Secondary Health Care, with a main focus on children and women – including treatment and prevention of acute malnutrition, maternal health, mental health, response to epidemics (Ebola, Cholera, Measles, Dengue, Lassa Fever), surgery, displaced populations, and gender based violence, Covid 19.

ALIMA in Ukraine

Mission Location: Odessa & Mykolaiv

We will focus its effort in South Ukraine to provide emergency primary health care and support to hospitals in the war zone of Mykolaiv Oblast and around. The main objective is to reduce the mortality and suffering among the population affected by the war in this area through 4 axes:

● Reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic disease and communicable diseases among the isolated population in Mykolaiv Oblast

● Reduce mental health burden through psychological care in Mykolaiv Oblast

● Support hospitals to deliver trauma and intensive health care in Mykolaiv City

● Ensuring a rapid response mechanism to delivered health care support to affected population

PROTECTION OF BENEFICIARIES AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Level 3: As part of his/her duties, the incumbent will visit programs and come into contact with children and/or vulnerable adults. Therefore, a criminal record check or a certificate of good character will be required. In situations where a criminal record check or character reference is not possible, a declaration on honour will be requested.

FUNCTIONAL AND HIERARCHICAL LINKS

● He/she reports to the Project coordinator (line manager), and to the Mental Health referent at HQ (technical manager).

● He/she manages the mental health team

● He/she works in close collaboration with the coordinators (medical, logistics and projects).

MAIN MISSION

The Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Activity Manager (MHPSS) is responsible for the implementation and smooth running of the mental health strategy for refugees, IDPs, patients, their families, the community and the teams. He/she ensures the functioning of the mental health pole on the project.

1.Implementation of ALIMA programs

● Implements and evolves the mental health care strategy, care circuit and referral in each intervention site;

● Ensures the implementation and monitoring of psychological support for beneficiaries in the various sites of displaced populations, patients or people in isolation and families

● Organizes psychological first aid sessions for victims and patients;

● Organizes time for sharing practices on specific situations

● Ensures the effectiveness of mental health and psychosocial support activities in accordance with the defined action plan and according to the minimum package of mental health activities vs. the complete package, with a focus on psychological first aid, prevention and management of psychotrauma;

● Ensures the development of partnerships for the management, orientation and referral of severe or chronic cases of mental disorders and/or psychosocial problems.

2.Monitoring, analysis and reporting

● Participates in external meetings and reports relevant information to the emergency coordinator

● Conducts a weekly summary of mental health activities and reports to the medical coordinator and the project’s referring physicians

● Follows the issues and recommendations of the cluster

● Produces a mission report and recommendations

3.Representation, coordination with other teams

● Ensures networking with the various partners,

● Participates in meetings related to his/her field of intervention on the instructions of the head office mental health referent;

4.Management of the mental health team

● Organizes the duties and schedules of the mental health worker team

● Ensures the proper transmission of information, provides clinical supervision of teams

● Collects data for the department’s monitoring and activity report

5.Capacity building and team facilitation

● Sets up a mental health team in collaboration with the project coordinator (the recruitment, training and reinforcement)

● Ensures that the skills of the mental Health staff are updated according to the evolution of the technical platform and the protocols made available to the mission

● Defines and update job profiles and performance objective plans for team members and participate in the same documents for medical and nursing referents

● Carries out the assessments of its team in an approach of professional course

● Identify the skills that team members need to acquire to master their positions and organize training to reinforce them

● Ensure trainings in accordance with ALIMA’s minimum package of mental health activities, and if necessary according to the complete package (psychological first aid, psychosocial activities, psychological support in the practice of medical care, mental health staff, prevention and management of psychotrauma, the relationship between caregivers and patients, and other needs identified upstream).

6.Team health

● Organizes debriefing sessions / He/she supports the teams in case of critical incident

● Ensures the implementation and follow-up of the psychological support of the teams on the different projects

● Evaluates and validates mental health referral structures with the project’s comed or medref

7.Implementation of prevention measures against abuse of power, gender-based and sexual violence:

● Participate in training and awareness sessions

● Apply standards for abuse prevention

● Ensure that team members attend trainings and awareness sessions and follow abuse prevention rules

● Contribute to creating and maintaining a nurturing and protective environment

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Experiences

● Professional Master’s degree in clinical and/or health psychology or equivalent

● Previous experience in humanitarian work

Qualities of the candidate

● An ability to problematize and summarize the main psychological issues and be able to set priorities

● Good teamwork and delegation skills

● A good deal of autonomy and the ability to create one’s own position in line with the association’s objectives and resources

● Good writing skills

● A good knowledge of psycho-trauma

Languages

● Russian or Ukrainian and English mandatory

● French is an asset

CONDITIONS

● Contract term: contract under French law,

● Contract length: 5 months (renewable, based on funding availability and performance)

● Position to be filled: May 2022

● Salary: depending on experience + per diem

ALIMA pays for:

● travel costs between the expatriate’s country of origin and the mission location

● accommodation costs

● medical cover from the first day of the contract to a month after the date of departure from the mission country for the employee

● evacuation of the employee