The Psycho-social support officer (PSS officer) will be responsible to contribute to the identification of PSNs, to provide individual counseling sessions (home-visits, assessments and follow-up sessions) to persons with specific needs identified by the community outreach workers or HI’s members and to facilitate referral linkage to other service providers, including internal referral. Additionally, The PSS officer will be in charge to organize and facilitate group counseling sessions including to their caregivers on specific topics (protection and PSS oriented).

The PSS officer will ensure that all PSS activities are implemented in a quality manner and in accordance with the project’s proposals objectives to ensure effectiveness of the response provided by HI.

The PSS officer will be expected to travel every day with the team to the field and respond to refugees psycho-social needs.

The PSS officer will contribute to build the capacity of the community outreach volunteers through mentoring and ‘’on-the-job’’ coaching mainly to provide basic Psychological First Aid (PFA) and being able to identify the main symptoms of distress and specific positive coping mechanisms to better strengthen community support.

2.      ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

2.1  Design and Implementation of PSS activities

-          Contribute to the safe identification of Persons with specific needs (PWSNs) especially persons with disabilities, chronic illness, injured and elderly persons using the agreed identification form;

-          Conduct specific individual assessment through home visits to better understand Psychosocial wellbeing, identify the needs and vulnerabilities of the beneficiaries and assess the level of risk;

-          Conduct regular follow-up sessions through home visits for specific cases identified based on the level of risk;

-          Conduct appropriate internal and/or external referral to specialized services if needed in a timely and quality manner following the protection principles and using the agreed referral form;

-          Organize and conduct small group counseling sessions with persons with specific needs identified on PSS related topics (handling emotions healthy: stress and anger management, conflict management/conflict resolution, social and communication skills, self-esteem and self-confidence…) to strengthen community-based support mechanisms, interactions and resilience;

2.2  Community mobilization and community-based protection activities

-          Support the implementation of Caregivers of PWSNs group discussion in coordination with the rehabilitation officer and Community Protection Officer to strengthen community support groups, foster social connections and promote peer-to-peer support through life experience sharing;

-          Contribute to the design, planning and implementation of Community events in sites to raise awareness about Rights of Persons with disabilities and ensure participation of persons with disabilities, other community members, actors and representatives of the government;

-          Contribute to mobilize community members especially persons with disabilities and involve them to actively participate in the design and implementation of specific inclusive activities (such as Sport’s group, music band, Street Theatre…) to strengthen social and emotional well-being as well as  self-confidence;

-          Coordinate with HI’s team and provide support to establish Organizations of persons with disabilities (DPO) within the camp(s);

-          Contribute to design specific topics related to PSS to raise awareness on among the community (such as coping mechanisms, stress management, conflict resolution…) and support the creation of a PSS toolbox with several materials (including inclusive IEC materials with key’s messages);

2.3  Support the supervision and coaching of the Community Outreach Volunteers (COVs)

-          Contribute to the identification of community outreach workers who will provide support to HI’s team on identification of PWSNs and specific group activity (awareness sessions…);

-          Contribute to ensure proper monitoring of the COVs’s activities especially to review the identification forms filled (quality of information reported and areas covered);

-          Contribute to build the capacity of HI’s community volunteers related to PSS’s topics, especially on the provision of Psychosocial first id (PFA), identification of signs of distress, specific positive coping mechanisms and technics, services available in the camps.

-          Ensure the COVs are well informed about services available in the camp, including MH-PSS services and how to seek support for better dissemination of information among the community;

-          Ensure respect of the protection principles, including ‘’Do No Harm’’ and ‘’Non-discrimination’’ principles by the COVs;

-          Ensure the COVs receive training on disability, inclusion, Rights of persons with disabilities including children, communication and group facilitation, Psycho-social First Aid (PFA) and provide support on that;

2.4  Coordination within the team

-          Ensure Persons with Specific Needs (PWSNs) especially persons with disabilities, receive appropriate multidisciplinary support through establishment of a strong internal referral pathway;

-          Work in close collaboration with the members of the team to ensure effective coordination on the field;

-          Report on a regular basis to your line-manager about the PSS activities implemented on the field through weekly reports (quantitative and qualitative data) and activities planning;

-          Participate in internal team meetings with other team members and project manager/operational coordinator to ensure efficient communication, coordination and sharing of relevant information;

2.5  Data Collection, Storage, Analysis, Sharing and Reporting

-          Ensure data are collected in a qualitative and effective way with the consent of the beneficiary and that appropriate tools and formats (agreed identification form, individual assessment form, referral forms…) are filled properly;

-          Ensure on a daily basis safe documentation and storage of the cases identified (identification forms, assessment forms, referrals forms, follow-up information…) in line with internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), guidelines and protection principles;

-          Ensure cases are well recorded through the database and other data collection methodologies (beneficiary’s files, …), updated every week and shared to the Project Manager when required, following the SOP on Internal Case management/Data governance;

-          Ensure additional monitoring tools (group activity attendance sheet, reports on community events,…) are filled on time, well recorded and stored properly;

-          Provide your support to HI’s team when compiling and reporting on specific activities, lessons learnt such as: community events, persons with disabilities’s day for HI’s capitalization;

-          Produce weekly activity reports for each activity implemented on the field with quantitative and qualitative information, including best practices, lessons learnt, progress report, minutes of meetings you attended and share to the PM/operational coordinator;

-          Prepare Terms of Reference (ToRs) and/or ‘’Activity Info Sheet’’ for specific group activities to be implemented on the field with specific information (purpose, objectives, methodologies, participatory and inclusive approach, target,…) and propose to your supervisor for approval;

-          Provide relevant and timely information for data driven decision making and monitoring of project performance to the project manager when required;

-          Ensure data are disaggregated by age, gender and disability when collecting and recording data;

-          Ensure the respect of the rights of the beneficiaries when collecting, storing, sharing data mainly by ensuring the consent from the individual is understood and given;

-          Adhere to HI’s Standards Operating Procedures, data management and protection principles;

2.6  Networking and representation

-          Identify and network with external service providers to reinforce referral mechanisms;

-          Support the Project Manager in continuous mapping of services available in HI’s areas of intervention;

-          Establish and maintain positive, transparent and efficient relations with target beneficiaries, community members, and all the other actors operating in the camp (regular meetings, respect of the referral pathways,…);

-          Set-up and maintain effective communication system with partners and stakeholders;

-          Participate in specific meetings (coordination, cluster meeting, CP/PSEA’s meetings…) when required and report back in a quality manner to your supervisor;

2.7  Maintain a high quality of work

-          Maintain a high level of knowledge and skills in understanding needed responses to general psycho-social and protection issues of refugees;

-          Ensure the implemented project meet the quality requirements of HI, partners and the funding agency;

-          Refer high priority cases to the relevant actor in a timely manner following the respect of the protection principles to ensure beneficiary receives services and prepare quality reports of the case;

2.8  Responsible for the respect and implementation of the safeguarding policies at project level

-          Ensure respect and compliance of HI’s policies including Child Protection and Child Safeguarding Policy, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse [PSEA] policy, Anti-fraud and anti-corruption policy, Code of Conduct;

-          Ensure reporting mechanisms are implemented and accessible for persons with specific needs in the working areas and inform the community accordingly;

-          Ensures that beneficiaries and community members are informed about HI’s safeguarding policies;

-          Disseminate information among community and partners about HI’s policies, Code of Conduct and PSEA’s messages and promote reporting of any concerns related to SEA and Child Safeguarding;

-          Report immediately to the PSEA focal point or to your Project Manager and Operational coordinator any concern, incident related to child protection, safeguarding and PSEA;