Mental Health Specialist

With over 70 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable childrens life stories!

Key Responsibilities:

Purpose of the position:

Reporting to the Health Programmes Director technically with a matrix reporting line to the Operations Director the Mental Health Specialist will support effective implementation in all World Vision field operations programme areas. Whilst the position will have no direct reports, the Specialist will be expected to work with other functions within the organization and identify mentoring and coaching to key staff such as the Peer to Peer Supporters on an on-going basis. Provide technical guidance for programming, lead Mental Health Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) integration across Area Programmes (APs) and Grants, provide clinical supervision of implementing teams, and facilitate capacity building of staff, implementing partners and guide mental health and psycho-social support interventions. Ensure effective quality implementation and monitoring of mental health and psycho-social support, in relation to all tasks related to support of field and office operations.

In order to perform this role effectively, the Mental Health Specialist must be able to promote and encourage a culture of compliance and ethics throughout the implementation. As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of Eswatini context donor compliance, ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conducts work with the highest level of integrity. Communicates World Visions Mission, Vision and Values to staff and to partners. A significant time will be spent by this role developing funding proposals to support the implementation of mental health interventions therefore it is essential that the Specialist must be experienced in this area as well as external/ donor engagement on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support.

Major Responsibilities:

• Oversee the technical design, planning, implementation and monitoring of the mental health and psychosocial support integration into World Vision Eswatini programs and grants in Health, Child protection and Livelihoods.
• Provide technical support and mentoring for WVE projects integrating mental health and psychosocial support as well as implementing partners rolling out mental health.
• Lead budgeting, planning, implementation and reporting for mental health internally and externally.
• Conduct internal and external stakeholder engagement and sustain relevant networks for the advancement of mental health rollout.
• Lead resource mobilization and identification of funding opportunities and proposal writing for mental health.
• Track implementation of mental health interventions and documents achievements, lessons learnt as well as best practices
• Define and roll out structured integration of mental health into WVE technical programs and outline supportive supervision
• Develop or implement MHPSS training plan, providing relevant materials.
• Coordinate the implementation of research projects aiming to establish evidence-based MHPSS programming, including training and supervision of staff as well as joint monitoring of the rollout of the intervention.
• Represent World Vision at relevant coordination meetings, including, Technical Working Groups, and Core Team Meetings. Liaise and collaborate with existing government structures and local authorities organizing MHPSS activities and advocating for collaboration on local MHPSS initiatives.

Other Competencies/Attributes:

• Must be a committed Christian, able to stand above denominational diversities.
• Interpersonal communication / relational capability
• Perform other duties as required.

Qualifications: Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience

The following may be acquired through a combination of formal or self-education, prior experience or on-the-job training:

• Mental Health professional with a Degree in Counselling Psychology, Psychology, Clinical Psychology, mental health nursing related field in Mental Health.
• Knowledge of public health, protection, human rights, international development, project management or other relevant field is an added advantage
• Clinical experience at community level, either in a research or clinical capacity
• A minimum of 3 years working experience in mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings or, one of which has to be at a supervisory level.
• Experience providing clinical supervision in individual and group settings and setting up supervisory models for large-scale MHPSS programs
• Experience working with MHPSS Implementing partners in humanitarian and development settings
• Experience conducting MHPSS-related trainings and development of training materials
• Strong organizational and supervisory skills and strong g interpersonal skills and the ability to work within different cultural environments
• Ability to work within a team structure or in isolation, flexible, and can cope with stressful workloads and working with limited resources
• Ability to work with and influence across multiple levels i.e. from community, peers to senior government and other officials.

Master of Arts/Science or equivalent in Counseling Psychology or Clinical Psychology, Clinical social work is an added advantage

Psychological Association Practice License or Accreditation is an added advantage.

Training and experience in Problem Management (PM+), Psychological First Aid (PFA), IPT-G, mhGAP , Self Help Plus.

Technical Skills & Abilities:

Prior Work Experience: A minimum of five years of progressive and responsible experience in mental health in Eswatini is required. Experience in program management and monitoring Experience in development of resources and donor engagement Experience in leading and facilitating trainings Experience in report writing (management and donor reports) Skills and Abilities:

Decision making

Analytical skills

Reporting writing

Working Environment / Conditions:

• Work environment: spending 50% of his/her time in the office
• Travel: spending 50% of his/her time visiting programmes

Applicant Types Accepted:

Local Applicants Only