Mentor Mother at Heartland Alliance

Job Summary

The Mentor Mother will provide adherence support, education and counselling to Pregnant and breast-feeding women living with HIV as well as their HIV exposed infants (till 18 months of age) within the ACE-6 supported sites, spoke sites and community structures, towards the aim of eliminating MTCT of HIV within the LGAs/State.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Serves as a peer-supporter for pregnant and breastfeeding women LHIV and provide counselling on safe practices to prevent HIV transmission to infants.
• Provide education and Psycho-social support to Pregnant and Breastfeeding women LHIV, their Partners/families and link them to care and support accordingly.
• Remind Pregnant and breast-feeding women LHIV of their appointments and invite them/their families to participate in support group sessions
• Promote demand creation for PMTCT and EID services at various Service delivery Points including Pediatric clinics (and wards), immunization and children emergency.
• Participate in providing health talks during ANC/immunization clinics, health facility training sessions and data review sessions monthly.
• Actively ensure all Pregnant and Breastfeeding women on the project receive all PMTCT services and perform routine analysis to identify, mitigate and curb gaps in the PMTCT continuum of care.
• Support case identification at facility and community level for all ANC attendees, partners and children of positive Pregnant or Breast-feeding women as well as support HIV Self-test kits distribution among Partners of Pregnant women at high risk.
• Support retesting of pregnant/breastfeeding women for HIV at both community and facility level.
• Follow-up with pregnant women and breast-feeding women to ensure they receive all services on the PMTCT package of care including infant feeding practices and provided client tailored services to individual clients during client sessions.
• Follow up Pregnant women to ensure Viral load testing and monitoring is done during pregnancy (32 -36 weeks)
• Conduct routine monitoring, tracking, and follow-up of mother-baby pair for ePNP and EID sample collection and cotrimoxazole prophylaxis both at the facility and community level especially for those who missed appointments.
• Follow-up HEIs to ensure all HIV exposed infants should receive ARV prophylaxis according to risk within 72hrs, EID samples are collected for PCR at birth and repeat samples should be at other milestones as indicated.
• Ensure all HEIs have an assessment of Final outcome at 18months and encourage routine infant immunization
• Support accurate and complete documentation of all service provided in the community and facility in Patient monitoring and management tools (Paper based and Electronic)
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or competency required.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Must be able to collaborate and work effectively with health care workers in facility and community settings.
• Must have a good knowledge of quality PMTCT, ANC and HIV service provision
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to be flexible and able to multi-task.
• Must be driven and solution-focused.
• Must be able to motivate and organize self to complete tasks.
• Excellent verbal communication skills, including use of smartphones
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.

Education and Experience:

• Knowledge and experience in PMTCT/Pediatrics HIV implementation (Basics/Prevention of HIV, Counseling, Testing, and Linkage to care, and client management) preferred with at least one-year experience working with HIV+ population and/or population(s) at high risk for HIV infection.
• Minimum of SSCE
• OND/BSC will be an added advantage.
• Ability to effectively communicate in English, Pidgin English and/or common local dialect.

Other Competencies:

• Time Management – Ability to prioritize tasks, manage time, and complete projects in a fast-paced, changing environment with minimal supervision.
• Quality Management - Looks for ways to improve and promote quality; Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness.
• Written Communication - Writes clearly and informatively; Edits work for spelling and grammar; Varies writing style to meet needs; Presents numerical data effectively.
• Adaptability - Adapts to changes in the work environment; Manages competing demands; Changes approach or method to best fit the situation; Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
• Cultural Sensitivity – Respect the cultural environment in which a person is working and does not act in a manner that is outwardly offensive to the local community.
• Non-discriminatory- Do not discriminate against persons based on sexual orientation or gender identity, age, preferred jobs, or behavioral habits.

Language Skills:

• Excellent oral and written English communication skills.
• Knowledge of Local Language preferred.
• Demonstrated competency in public speaking.

Computer Skills:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook/Exchange, Windows operating systems, PowerPoint.
• Other software routinely used by HALG.

Work Environment:

• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• The employee will be required to co-locate with local partners usually in the same office.
• The employee is required to travel regularly to often insecure and limited-resource environments.