Social Sciences Careers – Technical Advisor Psychosocial Support Services – NU-HITES Project at Plan

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Department & Location: Programs
Reports to: Director of Health Service Delivery
About Plan:
Founded 75 years ago, Plan International is one of the oldest and largest children’s development organizations in the world. We work in 49 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty. Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. Plan is independent, with no religious, political or governmental affiliations. The organisation is an equal opportunity employer currently seeking to recruit competent persons to fill the following vacant positions:
Plan International Inc. in Uganda was awarded a 5-year Cooperative Agreement under the Northern Uganda-Health Integration to Enhance Services (NU-HITES) project to continue providing technical assistance and capacity building support for Northern Uganda in Malaria, AIDS and Tuberculosis, integrate additional support in Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH), Family Planning (FP) and nutrition; while prioritizing the strengthening of district-level health facilities. Under the NU-HITES project, Plan Uganda would like to recruit competent candidates:
Job Summary: This position reports to the Director of Health Service Delivery and the successful candidate will be a member of the health service delivery team, serve as the project’s expert on Psychosocial support, mental health and other wraparound service programs in fifteen project supported districts in Northern Uganda. This Technical Advisor-Psychosocial Support Services will serve to provide technical and strategic support towards achievement of project outcomes related to availability of and accessibility to quality integrated health services for vulnerable groups and their families, and specifically to increase access of vulnerable groups and their families to prevention, care and treatment as well as wraparound services. It is a full-time position based in Gulu for a five-year term, with frequent travel to districts through the Northern Region of Uganda.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:-
·         Member of the Health Service Delivery Team of the NU-HITES project reporting to the Health Service Delivery Director.
·         Supports the Health Service Delivery Director in designing, implementation and monitoring psychosocial support services, mental health services and other wraparound services to ensure holistic prevention, care and treatment activities for vulnerable groups and their families.
·         Supports the Health Service Delivery Director to ensure effective delivery of the project in compliance with USAID rules and regulations, Plan policies and procedures as well as the national and other relevant international policies and guidelines.
Key Results Areas:
·         Participate in designing, implementation and monitoring of psychosocial support, mental health and other wraparound services and to ensure effective integration within prevention, care and treatment activities both at facility and community levels.
·         Take lead in designing capacity needs assessments for both health-facility staff and community support teams (Village Health Teams, health peer support groups) in the area of Psychosocial support, counseling, mental health and other wraparound services.
·         Take lead in designing and implementation of appropriate training packages for health-facility and community based resource teams to enhance technical capacity in providing quality psychosocial support, mental health and other wraparound services to vulnerable groups and their families.
·         Provides technical and strategic guidance to implementing partners and field based teams on comprehensive and holistic prevention, care and treatment programs in line with national and international advances, especially in the area of TB, HIV/AIDS and mental health in a post conflict setting.
·         Provides technical support to the field-based teams during the development of annual work-plans and participates in the planning and budgeting activities, especially in regard to integration of family-centered psychosocial and wraparound services into prevention, care and treatment services.
·         Represent NU-HITES project in technical working groups in the project supported districts and at national level.
·         Contributes to NU-HITES periodic reports by providing technical leadership in coordinating field-level technical reporting and consolidation of field reports on psychosocial support, post-conflict mental health and other wraparound services within the mainstream prevention, care and treatment programs according to defined reporting schedules
·         Coordinates regular technical support, mentorship and supervision of project supported district health teams and specifically the implementing health facilities and CSOs in collaboration with the field-based (sub-region) project team, district health offices and Ministry of Health.
·         Participates in organizing periodic technical review and planning meetings with project stakeholders for the NU-HITES project
·         Identify document and disseminating best practices related to psychosocial support programs within holistic models of prevention, care and treatment.
·         Work closely with other members of the health service delivery team and implementing partners to ensure effective mainstreaming of psychosocial support, counseling and wraparound services into other project-supported interventions.
·         Ensure that Plan’s child protection policy and guidelines are adhered to through out project implementation.
Qualifications, Skills, and Experience:
Knowledge:
·         A degree in Counseling, Clinical Psychology, Social Work or Social Sciences and/or a master’s in a relevant discipline.
·         Additional training in psychosocial support services and counseling.
·         At least 5 years of professional experience working in holistic HIV/AIDS prevention, care & treatment programs both in public and private sector.
·         Experience of working in post-conflict settings with hands-on knowledge and skills in designing, planning, implementing and monitoring of facility and community-based psychosocial and counseling programs within mainstream prevention, care and treatment programs including PMTCT and ART.
·         Practical experience in working with district and community health systems including Village Health Teams (VHT) and Networks of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
·         Experience in developing and implementation of capacity building programs for psychosocial support and counseling for health facility and community health delivery teams.
·         Sound understanding of current policy developments in the field of TB and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment, especially TB and HIV collaboration, pediatric and adult ART, PMTCT and HCT.
·         Willingness to work in Northern Uganda and travel 60% of the time in field.
·         Good working knowledge of Microsoft office programs including MS Excel, MS Word and MS Power Point.
Skills:
·         Good working knowledge of Microsoft office programs including MS Excel, MS Word and MS Power Point.
·         Strong skills in teamwork and networking.
·         Good communication skills (written and oral).
·         Excellent skills in documentation and report writing
·         Excellent negotiation and influencing skills in multi-cultural contexts
Other Personality Traits
·         Behaves consistently in approach to work and decision-making
·         Strongly drives performance forward in area of the business for which they are responsible together with the team
·         High level of integrity with commitment to meet deadlines
·         Sets a strong learning culture in their part of the organization
·         Remains calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations
·         Aware of impact on others and adjusting own behaviour accordingly
How to apply: 
While we thank all applicants for your interest, only those selected for interviews will be contacted. Any form of lobbying will lead to automatic disqualification.
Send your CV and cover letter with 3 work related referees to the address or e-mail below. Please mark your application with the Position Name of the job you are applying for and your preferred location. E-mails that exceed 2MB will be rejected by the system.
People Performance Group
Plot 8 Kitante Close, Kitante
P.O. Box 12405, Kampala
Uganda
E-mail: application@ppg.co.ug
Deadline: 19th October, 2012
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