Support Group Facilitator (Consultancy)

The support group facilitator provides leadership and encourages group members; assigned by the National Mental Health Programme; to share experiences, ideas, feelings, address challenges, while receiving the needed information and support.

A. MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBLITIES

Conduct online or face to face support group sessions to frontliners and other professionals identified by the national mental health programme applying the NMHP guidance documents and SoPs that they would be oriented on. Below are main criteria to focus on during the sessions:

• Maintain a safe environment: ensure confidentiality is respected and group boundaries (structure, schedules, roles, ect) 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.
• Helping members to be more aware of how they are feeling in the sesson an benefit them outside the sessions by encouraging them to pay closer attention to their feelings on a more regular basis.

Ensure effective listining in the sessions:

• Coordinate with the National mental health programme 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.

B. QUALIFICATIONS: 

• Master’s degree in clinical psychology, licensed by the order of psychologists
• Solid experience in conducting support groups, with a minimum of 7 years in relevant position
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for interacting with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to work effectively within a team and collaborate with other departments.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication abilities.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple tasks.
• Commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
• High ethical standards and integrity in handling sensitive data.
• Proactive and solutions-oriented approach.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic.