Psychologist (7-month contract)

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, in order to provide access to medico-surgical care to children suffering from cardiopathies and orthopedics disabilities. 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 implementing activities related to the 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.

Within the frame of its program development in Lebanon, la Chaîne de l’Espoir is looking for a Psychologist.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Under the management of the Project Officer, the Psychologist ensures the mental health and wellbeing of patients and their families throughout the healthcare pathway provided by CDE.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Mental health assessment

• Contributes to the set-up of the mental health tool box (WGQ, PHQ-9, GAF, etc);
• 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;
• Creates 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;
• Ensures confidentiality at all time;

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 Program Officer;
• Pro-actively suggests, in collaboration with the Social Worker, positive stories to the Program Officer, upon consent of the patient;
• Documents cases and ensures appropriate update of the relevant databases;
• Provides analysis and statistics of the findings;
• Notifies the Program Officer of any issue related to the patients or healthcare pathway;

Actors mapping and referrals

• When necessary, ensures timely external referrals to the relevant actor (hospitals, NGOs, etc), in close collaboration with CDE’s social workers;
• Develops and maintains relationships with relevant stakeholders (other psychologists, psychiatrists working in other structures for instance) based on the need;
• Ensures regular internal communication and collaboration with CDE’s social workers;

Others

• Actively contributes to CDE’s duty of care towards the staff, in close collaboration with the HR Officer.

Any other tasks as requested by the line manager.

TEAM RELATIONSHIP

Line and technical manager:       Project Officer

Line and technical reports:          N/A

Close collaboration with:             Social workers and Medical team

PROFILE

Academic background

Clinical psychologist [required]

Training related to mental health for children, gender and/or protection-related topics [required]

In-depth knowledge of various therapeutic approaches and techniques (CBT, DBT, IPT or other approaches) [required]

Registered within the Ministry of Public Health is a plus

Working experience

At least 2 years of experience [required]

Experience working with children [required]

Existing networking in the mental health sector is a plus

Experience within the humanitarian sector is a plus

Specific skills

Good commands of Microsoft office suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) [required]

Previous experience in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data [required]

Excellent writing and communication skills, especially with children [required]

Empathy, sensitivity, and the ability to create a safe and supportive environment for children [required]

Capacity to travel to CDE’s projects’ implementation areas of Lebanon [required]

Languages

Fluent in Arabic (speaking, writing, reading) [required]

Strong commands in English [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

Please note that interviews may take place on a rolling basis.