Mental Health Officer at World Health Organization (WHO)

Ref Id: 1803357
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Grade: NO-B
Contractual Arrangement: Individual service contractor
Contract Duration: 3 Months
Schedule: Full-time

Purpose of the Position

• The Northeast of Nigeria is experiencing a humanitarian emergency affecting nearly 15 million people. It involves massive displacements of populations resulting in more than 2 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs)
• The IDPs live in densely populated clusters in camps or in host communities with poor sanitary conditions, and limited availability of food and basic services
• It is estimated that nearly 4 million people are in need of health services. This humanitarian crisis with ongoing violence and displacement has impact on the health of the affected population including mental health
• As a result of the disruption of the health delivery system and the relatively less emphasis given to mental health, there is a need to include mental health service as one of the essential health services. 

Description of Duties
Reporting to the Team Lead and under the overall guidance of the Incident Manager, the Mental Health Officer will be accountable for the effective day to day management of WHO mental health activities in line with the mhGAP approach, Sphere Project and Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) policies and strategies in the areas of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS).

The specific functions of the incumbent are:

• Facilitate training of PHC workers on MhGAP
• In collaboration with Borno state Neuro Psychiatry Hospital Organize and supervise mental outreach mental health services.
• Facilitate support to referral of patients to the state Neuropsychiatry hospital
• Provide timely analysed data on mental health services
• Support the assessment of mental health services in the state.
• Actively participate in the mental health related meetings
• Collaborate with partners on mental health through the mental health working group
• Perform other activities as required by the supervisor

Required Qualifications
Education:

• Essential: University Degree/qualification as a Psychiatry Nurse or Clinical Psychologist from a recognized university/institute.
• Desirable: Master's Degree in Public Health from an accredited/recognized institute.

Experience:

• Essential: At least 2 years’ experience in mental health in an international organization, NGO, government agencies or any other reputable organization
• Desirable: Prior humanitarian working experience at field level with WHO, other UN agencies, health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organizations or with an international non-governmental organization with expertise in mental health.

Use of language skills:

• Essential: Excellent knowledge of English
• Desirable: Working knowledge of ethnic languages would be an asset.

Specific skills required:

• Good working of Microsoft Office
• Ability to work with large datasets.
• Good knowledge of online data collection applications, statistical analysis packages (Stata, SPSS, etc.).