Assistant Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Officer

1. General Background

While Iraq continues to steadily recover from years of conflict, thousands of vulnerable families across the country remain displaced and in acute need of protection and assistance. As of 30 September 2021, 249,733 Syrian refugees (62% urban, 38% camp) and 38,016 refugees of other nationalities resided across Iraq, with over 97.67% of Syrian refugees and 53% of non-Syrian asylum seekers located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I).

MHPSS services include interventions for promotion and protection of psychosocial wellbeing, and prevention and treatment of mental illnesses. UNHCR supports and coordinates the provision of these services in refugee camps in KR-I with implementing partners (DoHs and I/NGOs) and alongside other operating partners working in both Public Health and Protection sectors.

The MHPSS units supported by UNHCR cover a multilayered array of MHPSS services by a team consisting of MHPSS Community Workers, psychologists, counsellors, and psychiatrists. UNHCR and partners continue to strengthen the multidisciplinary and multilayered approach to supporting PoCs seeking mental health and psychosocial support as per IASC guidelines.

With the cross-sectorial nature of MHPSS, UNHCR works on strengthening quality integration of MHPSS within Public Health and Protection (CBP, GBV/CP).

To ensure integration of MHPSS services within primary healthcare, UNHCR supports capacity building and supervision of primary healthcare staff on several topics such as mhGAP.

UNHCR also supports training and supervision of teachers on a wide range of topics related to promotion and protection of mental wellbeing. Refugee community members and Protection partner staff are also trained on a wide range of MHPSS-related topics, such as low-intensity brief psychological interventions (PM+). UNHCR is also looking to strengthen and further encouraging the use of brief psychological interventions adapted to refugees (gIPT, PM+,etc.).

1. Purpose and Scope of Assignment

2. Provide, as required, direct technical support and capacity building to partners providing MHPSS services, including but not limited to: training, supervision, and monitoring

3. Support partners and the Directorates of Health (DoH) in respective governorates in implementing MHPSS interventions in line with UNHCR’s guidelines.

4. Develop and support a capacity building plan in consultation with MHPSS partners

5. Ensure MHPSS activities and programmes are integrated into wider systems (i.e. community-based protection and support mechanisms, formal/non-formal education systems, general health services, social services, etc.) to the extent feasible.

6. Support partners to ensure interventions are focused on assessment of families/individual case conditions, case management, counseling, provision of psychological first aid (PFA), enhanced recovery, and self-coping mechanisms for PoC

7. Ensure a functional two-way referral system between community and PHCs through effective collaboration between health and protection/CBP sectors.

8. Ensure an effective coordination mechanism for intersectoral MHPSS service provision in targeted locations to deliver a comprehensive, integrated, and community-based MHPSS package.

9. Explore innovative approaches to increase coverage of MHPSS services for out-of-camp refugees, ensuring strenghtening of the national system and mapping of relevant services.

10. Support UNHCR to gain a better understanding of MHPSS technical and field operational issues for programming.

11. Monitoring and Progress Controls

12. Improved partner capacity to deliver MHPSS services for PoC through rollout and effective implementation of mhGAP

13. Improved community capacity in low intensity psychological interventions

14. Enhanced quality of MHPSS programmes

15. Strengthened coordination (with Protection, Education, etc.) mechanisms in MHPSS delivery

16. Data collection, analysis, and reported as needed on MHPSS service provision, activities, and gaps

17. Qualifications and Experience

a. Education

• BSc or Advanced degree in psychology/public health/medicine/nursing; or behavioural/social science. Additional training in MHPSS in humanitarian settings is essential.

• Training on scalable psychological interventions (PM+ and Interpersonal Therapy) is a strong advantage.

b. Work Experience

Essential work experience:

• 1 year experience with undergraduate degree (in the relevant fields mentioned above).
• Professional experience in the humanitarian or forced displacement field

• Field-based experience in programme management, MHPSS in humanitarian settings and supervision of MHPSS teams.
  -Field-based experience working with the health sector in low-or middle-income countries
  -Experience in training unspecialized community members on MHPSS-related topics, including psychological interventions.

• Key Competencies

• Good knowledge of different cultural attitudes, practices, and systems of social support in the geographical areas of interventions

• Fluency in English

• Knowledge of Arabic and Kurdish is mandatory

• Ability to promote good working relationships among colleagues, supervisors, etc.