MHPSS Case Worker

Position: MHPSS case worker

Location: Zalka, Lebanon

Type of assignment: Full time

Salary: According to internal salary scale, based on profile and experience

Contract length: 12 months (potential extension based on needs, funds available, and work performance)

CONTEXT

Founded in 1994, La Chaîne de l’Espoir (CDE) is an international NGO headquartered in Paris, France. Its mission is to strengthen healthcare systems and provide to everyone, especially children, equal chances and opportunities of survival and development.

CDE is currently active in twenty-seven (27) countries with a global approach, mainly focusing on children, mothers and disadvantaged communities. Find our activities briefly elaborated as follows:

• Prevention and screening from an early age, particularly through school health programs;
• Care and surgery to meet the most urgent needs of children and their mothers;
• Training and transfer of skills to local teams (capacity building) thanks to our international network of experts in all areas of surgery;
• Construction and equipment of hospital facilities adapted to local needs.

CDE has been implementing humanitarian activities in Lebanon since 2005, working through local partners, such as HeartBeat, to provide access to medico-surgical care to children suffering from cardiopathies and orthopedics disabilities. In late 2020, CDE eventually opened its mission in Lebanon to respond to growing needs due to the significant deterioration of the situation. Since then, CDE is implemented two (2) projects related to tertiary healthcare, including several aspects such as the strengthening of the healthcare system, early detection of congenital orthopedics disorders, psychosocial support, etc. – via direct and indirect (through local partners) implementation. Lately, CDE is launching a large-scale project to provide general pediatric surgery for vulnerable populations through a network of governmental hospitals. Aiming at enhancing providing a supportive environment to children undergoing treatment, their caregivers, and the healthcare staff, CDE intends to implement various activities that require the expertise of a MHPSS Case Worker.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Under the management of the Project Officer, the MHPSS case worker contributes to the timely and quality implementation of la Chaîne de l’Espoir’s activities.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Vulnerability assessment

• Support CDE’s social team, when needed, in conducting comprehensive social and economic assessments for identified beneficiaries in need of medical intervention;
• Contribute, with CDE’s social team, in ensuring proper and continuous follow up with the patients to receive needed interventions;
• Documenting cases and filling social files and all required documents according to the internal procedure. Ensuring all relevant documents are available and beneficiaries files are complete;
• Maintaining good working relationships with various partners and stakeholders to ensure access to secondary health services.

Mental health assessment

• Contributes to the update of the mental health toolbox (WGQ, PHQ-9, GAF, etc.) if needed;
• Participates in designing effective operating procedures to ensure high quality psychosocial support to patients and their families.

Psychosocial support

• Conducts MHPSS assessments with the patients and their families;
• Conducts psychosocial support sessions for patients and their families (group and individual);
• Support patients and their families in their specific psychological needs related to their situation and medical condition;
• Ensures the patients and their families benefits from the PSS sessions as long as it is needed;
• Supports beneficiaries after completion of their cycle, in case of deterioration of their wellbeing;
• Contributes to ensuring, in close collaboration with the psychologist, a child-friendly and child-centered environment throughout the healthcare pathway provided by CDE (consultations, hospitalization, post-operative follow-up…), in close coordination with CDE’s social workers.

Follow-up and reporting

•  Regularly documents and communicates challenges, lessons learnt and best practices;
•  Regularly assesses and provides feedback and recommendations on the quality of the psychosocial support;
•  Submit regular achievements’ report to the Project Officer;
•  Pro-actively suggests, in collaboration with the Social Workers, positive stories to the Project Officer, upon consent of the patient;
• Documents cases and ensures appropriate update of the relevant databases;
• Provides analysis and statistics of the findings;

Other

• Ensures regular internal communication and collaboration with CDE’s social workers and the psychologist, on continuous basis and with all missions’ staff including the program, the medical and the support (HR, MEAL, etc.) departments on based on the needs;

• Ensure confidentiality of data and information related to patients, their care and family;
• Support good relationship building between CDE staff, patients and other contributors;
• Keep CDE team informed on any issues related to the patients, healthcare pathway or other;
• Report any security, ethical or acceptance-related issues to his/her line manager;
• Troubleshoot access or availability issues for patients;

Any other tasks as requested by the line manager and agreed upon based on urgent/important needs.

Team Relationship

Line and technical manager: Project Officer

Close collaboration with: Works closely with patients and families, along with CDE colleagues, hospital employees and other paramedical staff when needed

Profile

Professional training

Bachelor's degree in psychology or social work [Required]

Specific training on mental health and psychosocial support for children specifically sick children and/or children in humanitarian settings is a plus

Working experience

Experience working in the NGO/Humanitarian sector [Required]

Knowledge of protection-related issues [Required]

Specific skills

Experience using and updating databases (Excel, Access, etc.) is a plus

Previous experience in analyzing and collecting data is a plus

Strategic thinking, capacity to analyze and propose solutions is a plus

Excellent verbal and written communication skills [Required]

Solution oriented, polyvalent and flexible [Required]

Patient and sense of diplomacy in operational environment [Required]

Adherence to humanitarian principles and CDE’s Code of Ethics [Required]

Excellent organizational & documentation skills [Required]

Ability to classify and to manage multiple priorities [Required]

Ability to listen and share decisions [Required]

Ability to make effective decisions according to the context [Required]

Good writing and communication skills [Required]

Good understanding of medical ethics and patient education [Required]

Maintains confidentiality of work [Required]

Excellent skills in active listening [Required]

Languages

Fluent in Arabic and English (speaking, writing, reading) [Required]

Knowledge of French is a plus

CDE always ensures its team members:

• Are driven to answer beneficiaries’ needs
• Works in line with the humanitarian principles and CDE’s values
• Respects at all-time CDE’s procedures in place
• Have a sense of teamwork in multicultural context
• Maintain confidentiality of work