Mental health expert for support groups - consultancy

Position: Mental health expert for support groups

Required deliverables: Progress report on support group organized

Project: Improving Mental Health and Well Being of people living in Lebanon

Expected timeframe of the employment: December 2020 – April 2021 // 5 months

Type of employment: Consultancy

Job location: Remotely or face to face, as needed

How to apply: send resume/CV, cover letter (with explicitly mentioning previous similar experience), and financial offer to the following email address mdm.lebanon.hr@gmail.com , mentioning “Mental health expert for support groups” in the subject email.

Deadline for application: December 17, 2020

About the project and the position

A consortium of six organizations, including Médecins du Monde (MdM), Skoun, Abaad, Amel, Embrace and Humanity and Inclusion (HI), along with National Mental Health Program (NMHP), supported by the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), aims to improve the opportunities for individuals living in Lebanon to enjoy the best possible mental health and wellbeing. The consortium is looking to recruit a mental health expert to facilitate support group sessions for frontliners (health workers, volunteers, etc.). The support group facilitator provides leadership and encourages group members to share experiences, ideas, feelings, address challenges, while receiving the needed information and support.

Tasks and duties

• Conduct support group sessions to frontliners and other professionals identified by the national mental health programme through remote sessions (face to face ones if needed). Below are main criterias to focus on during the sessions
  • Maintain a safe environment: ensure confidentiality is respected and group boundaries (structure, schedules, roles, etc.) remain intact, and that members are protected whenever possible from situations that are highly triggering, threatening or unsafe. If these situations occur, facilitators need to ensure the necessary actions are taken to restore safety and support any individuals affected.
  • Ensure a supporting environment:
    • Within a group with diversity, facilitators need to plan ways to aid members to manage concerns about their differences if they arise during meetings. The facilitator should use their mediation and communication skills to promote ways of understanding and accepting differences. It is part of the facilitator’s role to foster an environment that is inclusive of all members by highlighting commonalities more than differences.
    • Facilitators can help the group by identifying specific feelings. Pointing out behavior changes is a technique facilitator can use to do this.
    • Helping members to be more aware of how they are feeling in the meeting can benefit them outside the meetings by encouraging them to pay closer attention to their feelings on a more regular basis.
    • Ensure effective listening in the sessions
• Coordinate with the technical team for any concern while respecting the confidentiality agreement with the support group participants.
• Ensure the role of the main facilitator or co facilitator depending on the group size.

Deliverables

• Delivered sessions
• Monthly progress report of the conducted sessions

Education, experience and relevant skills

• Degree in psychiatry or Master in psychology (License to practice is a must and trained on evidence based therapy is important),
• Fluent in Arabic and English,
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience
•  Aligned with National Criteria for recruitment developed by the national mental health programme link,
• Ability to work under pressure,
• Good communication and analytical skills,
• Good organizational and problem-solving skills, and
• Reliability and accountability.