Médecins sans frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, is an international humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization (NGO) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases.

General scope

The general objective of the Psychologist OCBA Staff Care is to contribute to the improvement of the psychosocial health of the field teams and its members, guaranteeing mental health support by:

• Providing psychosocial support in case of critical incidents
• Providing psychosocial support during acute stress situations and individual distress
• Developing and implementing strategies and interventions aimed at improving the mental health of the field teams
• Developing policies related to mental health of field teams

Place in the organisation

• Part of the OCBA Staff Care Team in the HR department
• Reports to the Head of Staff Care Area
• Manages the psychosocial mobile implementing officer
• Works closely with the Operational Cells and with the “Country Management Team” of missions, to analyze the psychosocial situation of the teams as well as to prepare proposals and implement them.
• Coordinates a network of external professionals who provides support to the field teams, both at national and international levels.

MAIN TASKS

Critical Incident support

• Participates in the on-call service for critical incidents (under the lead of the psychologist in charge of coordination of critical incident support)
• Back up as member of the Crisis Team set up for major critical incidents
• Participate in critical incident field visits.
• Provide remote support to team members affected by critical incidents
• Reinforce the critical incident external support team by identifying trained psychologist able to be part of this roster – with a special focus on regional support networks
• Support OCBA teams evacuated and ensure their psychological follow up during the evacuation in close collaboration with the operational cell and other relevant team/departments

Coordination and implementation of psychosocial DBF procedures

• Participate in the coordination of the procedures ensuring international OCBA staff have a return talk organized on return (emotional debriefing).
• Carry out return talks.
• Refer international mobile staff to an external referral network of psychologists when needed
• Identify volunteers in the Eastern African Region motivated to reinforce the PSU capacity to ensure     return talks for the people from the EA region working with OCBA.
• Participate in BFs – DBFs of HOMs, Medcos, HRCOs, Fieldcos and PMRs

Psychological Support

• Provide psychological support to team members in the field, national and international, remotely and during field visits.
• Support punctually in the referrals of HQ personnel presenting mental health distress.
• Support staff and their families during medical evacuations
• Advise on the management and support of team members in distress.
• Advise and provide support to the Mission Coordination Teams (HQ cell and field coordination teams) in the management and follow up of issues related to the team’s mental and psychosocial health.
• Maintain regular contact with counterparts in the field (HoM, MedCO, FC) and in HQ (in the cells: Rehuco and Tesaco; in the partner section, dir HR).
• Carry out field visits aiming at strengthening capacity for psychosocial support to field staff at mission level
• Subject to availability, participate in the support of other OC’s team
• Members in the countries where OCBA is doing a field visit.

Building external networks

• Identify and develop a network of psychologists in different countries able to collaborate with the incidents response, to participate in programmed field visits and to support return talks with the regional pool working for OCBA.
• Organize updates and training meetings aimed to consolidate a  roster of collaborators familiar with OCBA’s protocols, material for interventions and ways of management of psycho social support to staff
• Implement, improve and coordinate the network of external professionals who provide support to the field teams, both at national and international levels.

Knowledge production

• Lead the development and implementation of research actions and psychosocial assessments related to the mental health of the teams.
• Take the lead in the development of documents aimed to support the teams and to reinforce resilience
• Take the lead in the preparation and translation of tools and technical documents

Trainings

• Take the lead in all training initiatives linked to psycho social support for our field staff and staff in decentralized offices
• Take the lead in awareness and preparatory programs for the psychosocial support of the field teams
• Carry out context-specific briefings for coordinators and other key field managers
• Lead the preparation and facilitation of training modules linked to psycho social support to our field staff

General duties

• Participate in meetings of the Human Resources department, as well as in some other meetings of the Field HR and Medical Operations Service.
• Participate in interdisciplinary working groups of the department.
• Participate in the development of the annual planning of activities and resource allocation
• Participate in the follow up and reporting of activities and budget
• Oversee the work and performance of the staff directly managed by this position

SELECTION CRITERIA

• Education and Experience
• Psychologist or Psychiatrist with social and clinical experience.
• Knowledge and experience in emotional support/management of teams under crisis situations.
• Knowledge and experience in group management.
• Comprehension of/and work experience in the international context of MSF
• Experience in mental health interventions in conflict situation, violence and or catastrophe
• Fluent in French and English
• Knowledge of Spanish highly valued
• User-level IT skills (Microsoft Office applications).

Others

• Training skills.
• Availability to travel and to work flexible working hours