International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs.
Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life throughhealth interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.
PROGRAM BACKGROUND
International Medical Corps takes a leadership role in mental health by contributing to andworking in line with national and global guidelines for improving mental healthand well-being among affected populations. IMC strengthens national healthsystems by building human resource capacity for mental health service provisionamong general staff (e.g. general health care) or more specialized providers(e.g. psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists). We increase theavailability of accessible, non-stigmatizing, culturally acceptable and qualitymental health services. Our psychosocial activities teach life skills, offerrecreational outlets and build social support networks while empoweringaffected populations including children and youth. We integrate Early ChildhoodDevelopment (ECD) with nutrition and health programs to foster childdevelopment and growth. IMC helps people affected by mental healthproblems and their families connect with one another, contribute to theircommunities in positive ways and advocate for their rights.
JOB SUMMARY
Assist in providing oversight, guidance and technical support to MHPSS activities and programming. This includes the following:
Technical Assistance to Country Teams
- Program support: Support country teams and provide on-site and remote guidance and oversight in the development and running of culturally appropriate mental health and psychosocial activities, including MH PHC integration, MHPSS case management, Early Childhood Development, Psychological First Aid, designing holistic recreational, vocational and social activities for children and youth, peer support programs for people with chronic or severe mental illness, mental health advocacy and other programs in line with global guidelines and IMCs approach.
- Proposal Development: Assist country teams and HQ in developing MHPSS project proposals. Participate in meetings with donors to advocate for MHPSS program funding and develop MHPSS programs in line with donor priorities and local needs.
- Assessments: Support or carry out high quality stand-alone or integrated MHPSS needs assessments and situational analyses in line with global guidelines and tools (e.g. WHO/UNHCR) and IMCs approach.
- M&E: Assist in the development and use of consistent, standardized tools for monitoring and evaluating processes and outcomes of IMC MHPSS programs, with attention to recording lessons learned and potential project replication or expansion. Support and produce high quality case studies and evaluation reports of IMC MHPSS programs.
Advocacy, Standards & Learning
- Standards and principles: Help ensure that programming is in line with IASC guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies as well as with IMC’s MHPSS approach and Technical Unit guidance notes.
- MHPSS strategy and approaches: Provide input in IMC MHPSS strategies and approaches including MHPSS integration with other sectors (e.g. health, reproductive health, GBV, nutrition).
- Advocacy: Support global and national level efforts to advocate for MHPSS programming and for the rights and full participation of people with mental illness and their family members. This includes supporting the design and organization of activities and events (e.g. for World MH Day) as well as providing inputs into advocacy documents.
- Knowledge Management: Assist in organizing IMC’s global MHPSS resources and materials including knowledge management and dissemination of good practices, updated materials and current guidelines. This also includes supporting communities of practice (COPs) and technical meetings which the aim to connect MHPSS staff in different countries for exchanging knowledge and experiences.
Representation and Visibility
- Represent IMC and its MHPSS programs in relevant international conferences, meetings and working groups. Assist field teams in generating information and success stories from MHPSS programs to produce high quality outputs such as journal articles, op-eds, blogs and external reports.
Travel
- Support IMC country teams remotely and in person through frequent field visits (up to 60% travel, field assignments typically ranging from one to 8 weeks)
Reporting
- Closely work with IMC Global MHPS Advisor in performing activities and tasks and effectively coordinate and communicate with all relevant IMC and HQ staff.
Other duties as assigned. The duties and responsibilities listed are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and are not necessarily all inclusive.
Skills & Requirements:****REQUIREMENTS:
- Degree in relevant field (e.g. medical doctor with psychiatry specialization, psychiatric nurse, clinical or counseling psychologist or social worker) with significant professional practice experience
- At least 3+ years experience in setting up, establishing and running mental health and psychosocial programs in humanitarian and low-resource settings
- In depth understanding of general and MHPSS specific guidelines and principles for humanitarian settings (e.g. Sphere, IASC, WHO, UNHCR)
- Strong commitment to supporting the rights and positive contributions of people with mental illness and their families in line with a client centered, strengths based and human rights based approach.
- Significant experience in training and building the capacity of staff
- Very good ability to mentor, support and motivate others
- Strong organizational and supervisory skills
- Excellent writing and conceptualization skills
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work within different cultural environments
- Honest, hard working and a self-motivated
- Ability to work within a team structure or in isolation, flexible, and can cope with stressful workloads and working with limited resources
- Ability to travel on short notice to project sites
- An excellent command of verbal and written English, other relevant language skills (e.g. Arabic, French) a plus.
Other Relevant Information (if applicable):
