Associate Mental Health And Psychosocial Support Officer

Associate Mental Health And Psychosocial Support Officer

The Associate Mental Health And Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Officer is a member of a multidisciplinary team and contributes to ensuring that UNHCR's mental health and psychosocial support programmes optimally contribute to reduced suffering and improved mental health and psychosocial well-being among forcibly displaced and stateless populations, and as such contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

MHPSS activities do not constitute a separate sector within the work of UNHCR and partners but are mainly realized within existing sectors and work fields such as health, nutrition, education, community-based protection, child protection, and GBV. The Associate Mental Health And Psychosocial Support Officer supports providing effective guidance and appropriate capacity for MHPSS interventions within UNHCR and partners.

The incumbent provides effective and timely technical and strategic guidance to UNHCR senior management and partners, including the design and scope of UNHCR's responses in mental health and psychosocial support, catalyses the engagement of other actors, supports resource mobilisation efforts including the private sector, and monitors the response. S/he identifies problems, proposes solutions proactively and engages in developing, implementing, and overseeing MHPSS strategies, including in the inter-agency context. The incumbent advances the Global Public Health Strategy and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) concepts and applies a humanitarian-development nexus lens to UNHCR's MHPSS programming.

The Associate Mental Health And Psychosocial Support Officer is normally supervised by a Senior Public Health Officer or in the absence thereof, by operations, programme or protection staff.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties include:

• Provide support and recommendations on the implementation of MHPSS programmes.
• Support the development of quality mental health and psychosocial support interventions.
• Promote strong programmatic ties between units such as public health, protection, and education.
• Promote the use of internal guidelines and procedures to improve the efficiency and quality of MHPSS activities.
• Support multi-sectoral coordination outside and within UNHCR in all matters related to MHPSS for displaced populations.
• Support the integration of MHPSS into emergency preparedness and response planning.
• Support capacity strengthening around MHPSS and act as a resource person in workshops and trainings.
• Support the assessment and monitoring of country-level mental health programmes.
• Help promoting the quality of MHPSS services and provide technical advice.
• Support the documentation of better practices and lessons learnt for dissemination.

Minimum qualifications include:

• For P2/NOB: 3 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1 year relevant experience with Doctorate degree.
• Field(s) of Education: Clinical Psychology; Psychiatry; Clinical Social Work; Psychiatric nursing or other relevant field.
• Relevant job experience: Essential experience with evidence-based mental health and psychosocial support programming, including data collection and analysis, to inform sound decision-making. Experience in preparing training materials around mental health and psychosocial support. Experience with doing capacity building around MHPSS (training and workshops). Work experience with technical tools on mental health integration in primary health care, scalable psychological interventions (brief evidence-based psychotherapies) and community-based psychosocial work.
• Desirable experience with MHPSS in humanitarian or refugee settings, preferably both in acute emergencies and protracted situations. Experience with UNHCR.

Core competencies required include:

• Accountability
• Communication
• Organizational Awareness
• Teamwork & Collaboration
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Client & Result Orientation
• Managing Resources
• Empowering and Building Trust
• Managing Performance
• Analytical Thinking
• Planning and Organizing
• Stakeholder Management

Women are strongly encouraged to apply in order to promote gender balance within UNHCR. Applicants may be subjected to an assessment (written or oral interview). This position requires Functional Clearance.