Mental Health and Psychosocial Manager ( Syria Country Program )

Job Description

The mental health and psychosocial support manager will be responsible for the overall technical oversight of MHPSS services for the IRC Northwest Syria MHPSS program. S/he will provide technical support to IRC-supported MHPSS programs in Syria on clinical management of mental health conditions and coordinate the integration of MHPSS within health programs using the WHO/ UNHCR Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP) training and guidelines. This position is key to ensuring quality MHPSS services provided by the IRC in Northwest Syria.

Major Responsibilities: ----------------------------

- Provide strategic direction, leadership, and overall management to Mental Health and psychosocial program in Northwest Syria. - Build the capacity of the MHPSS team through providing context-specific training in line with WHO/UNHCR mhGAP intervention guidelines, and ongoing mentorship and supportive supervision. - In coordination and collaboration with the field staff set up a system to monitor the day-to-day MHPSS activities. - Review monthly mental health reports. - Set up a mechanism for capturing and sharing standard methodologies and lessons learnt among MHPSS health teams - Provide MHPSS technical support to mental health, community health teams as well as IRC partner organizations. - Provide remote training, mentorship, and monitoring and evaluation assistance to the psychologists providing psychological interventions, working inside the IRC-supported health facilities. - Coordinate with the mental health providers to ensure standardized data collection tools are used across mental health teams; with a special focus on tracking referrals and follow-up. - Collaborate with local partners to set up and coordinate community-based non-specialized MHPSS activities.

Research, learning, and analysis ----------------------------------------

- Work with local partner organizations and IRC teams to conduct regular analysis of MHPSS data collected from field teams in order to note trends and inform the program accordingly, as well as share information via reports as needed. - Coordinate timely information sharing between IRC teams and other implementing partners regarding challenges and needs at the field level. - Represent IRC in internal and external forums as needed, MHPSS sub-working technical group. - Participate in the regular MHPSS service mapping in coordination with the health cluster and MHPSS technical working group.

Management responsibilities: --------------------------------

- Collaborate with the partnership team to support the growth of the partner strategy and transition of facilities; - Coordinate the collection and management of the mhGAP information management system. - Pro-actively engage the Health and M&E Teams to ensure efficient workflow and coordination provide high-quality care to patients. - Set up mechanisms that ensure efficient mental health information management including information privacy and security and retrieval. - Other tasks as requested by supervisor.

Key Working Relationships: -------------------------------

Position Reports to: Health Coordinator

Supervises: MHPSS Counselors and Staff

Other Internal and/or external key contacts: ------------------------------------------------

Internal: Heath Coordinator, Health team members, Regional Health Technical Advisor, and MEAL teams, M&E Coordinator

External: IRC’s local partner organizations, WHO focal points, and other local INGO and NGOs

Update

Qualifications

- Advanced degree in psychology or counselling with psychotherapy, clinical work experience. - Minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience in psychosocial support/psychology, in clinical and/or direct practice settings. - High standards written and spoken English and Arabic. - Knowledgeable in and has used the IASC MHPSS guidelines and standard methodologies as part of their previous work experience. - Strong experience in clinical supervision, training, and or coaching others. Experience in assessment, program design, evaluation, and technical training and supervision using WHO’s mental health gap action program (mhGAP). - Experience in working with partners to implement programs. - Solid understanding of case management and survivor-centred care in humanitarian settings. - Strong understanding of humanitarian principles and standards. - Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated ability to collaborate closely with partner organizations, strong written and oral communication skills, with ability to communicate effectively with different types of people, including representation and liaison with external parties. - The ability to work under pressure with competing priorities and deadlines. - Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, colour**, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.**

Working Environment: The position will be based in the IRC’s Syria Country Program Office in Gaziantep, Turkey. Normal working hours are 8:30 am-5:30 pm Monday through Friday; with the possibility for evening and weekend working hours as needed.

#LI-GR2