Mission
Handicap International has been present in Afghanistan since the 1980’s, focusing on the support to the most vulnerable communities and, providing comprehensive services ranging from physical rehabilitation, to mine risk education and inclusive livelihoods, with a special focus on people with disabilities Besides Herat, HI is currently working in Kandahar, Kunduz, Nimroz and Kabul. And HI will start operation in Bamyan province also.
This role will be based within a health facility. Team comprised of social workers, Physiotherapists and Psychosocial workers providing psychosocial support to individuals and communities.
GLOBALOBJECTIVES OF THE POSITION:
Under the supervision of the Project Manager, with strong functional links with the MHPSS Technical Specialist, the psychosocial worker (PSW) will provide PRC base services to individuals, families and groups in the intervention area.
The PSW will:
- Provide quality assessment of psychosocial needs of persons experiencing psychological distress and persons with disabilities,) including children, and their caregivers, in coordination with the Physiotherapists.
- Support persons with psychological distress by providing quality direct response to the psychosocial needs identified, through individual, family or group interventions within the Handicap International comprehensive approach.
- Provide indirect response through referrals to stakeholders working in social, protection, psychosocial and mental health sectors or any other relevant sectors according to the needs of the beneficiaries (including close follow-up on the process and response).
RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS DESCRIPTION:
- In order to improve the rehabilitation process, assess the psychosocial issues and capacities of the beneficiaries and identify their needs in terms of psychosocial support in close collaboration with the PTs:
- Psychosocial workers are responsible for conducting thorough assessments to understand the emotional, social, and psychological well-being of individuals or communities they are working with. This includes identifying any psychosocial issues, trauma, or mental health concerns.
- Based on the assessment, psychosocial workers develop individualized intervention plans that address the identified psychosocial needs. These plans may include counseling, therapy, group activities, or referral to specialized services.
- Based on the assessment, psychosocial workers develop individualized intervention plans that address the identified psychosocial needs. These plans may include counseling, therapy, group activities, or referral to specialized services.
- Collaborating with other teams: Psychosocial workers often work within the teams, collaborating with other professionals such as physiotherapists, social workers, and EORE trainers. They contribute their expertise to develop holistic approaches for addressing complex psychosocial needs.
- Documentation and reporting: Psychosocial workers maintain accurate and confidential records of their interactions with clients, including assessments, intervention plans, progress notes, and outcome evaluations. They also prepare reports to communicate the impact of their interventions and contribute to program evaluation.
2. Offer secure and appropriate psychosocial support
- Provide psychosocial services based on the informed consent of the beneficiary and adapted to her/his needs, taking into account the limitations of the emergency responses.
- Actively involve the beneficiaries at all stages of the assessment and response, in order to ensure the relevance and sustainability of the intervention.
- Detect any evolution of the cases and will modify the action plan accordingly or refer to relevant colleague, superior or stakeholders
- Use secure and respectful methods when working with beneficiary
- Ensure a proper follow up of the cases
- Ensure the responsibility of the service provided to the beneficiary
- Provide appropriate psychosocial sessions to identified persons or households in need, including children, through family, groups and individual based approaches in coordination, when required, with the Physiotherapist.
- Provide awareness sessions and recreational activities to the beneficiaries in hospital.
- Use various communication means (written, spoken, etc.) during activities to ensure the self-expression of the beneficiaries
- Facilitate inclusive activities
- Identify his/her own limits and ask for support before any acts that could cause harm to beneficiary.
- Refer beneficiary to other services when needed:
- Identify needs for referrals to other relevant stakeholders and monitor referrals conducted in coordination with the social workers, the Physiotherapist.
- Refer persons to appropriate services through adequate referral system in place. Referrals can be discussed in team meetings and in close collaboration with others colleagues.
- Recognize emergency situation or situations that need immediate medical care or protection measure and react in consequence making efforts to ensure that beneficiary get the appropriate services.
- To build other team members’ and partners’ member’s capacities
- Work in a constructive way with the Physiotherapists.
- Provide technical advices for hospital or other humanitarian partners' staffs as per request of your line manager
- Provide training or sensitization sessions
- Materials Management
- Identify material, equipment, recreational kit needed, timely formulate requests, and ensure appropriate use/distribution
- Demonstrate willingness to improve professional competences and abilities to increase care quality:
- Demonstrate motivation at work.
- Demonstrate willingness to improve his/her own knowledge and skills by participating actively in any training sessions, capacity building activities…
- Participate in the different activities that are common to all team members (identification of needs of beneficiaries, internal and/or external referrals)
- Respect each team member’s positions, work, and specificity
- Adapt to special situations or demands from supervisor (reporting, etc.)
- Respect hygiene and security rules
- The Psychosocial Worker respects and applies basic hygiene rules;
- He/she maintains equipment clean and secured.
- He/she observes at all times strict commitment to Handicap International Security & Safety regulations as per procedures in place at mission level
- He/she supports information internal dissemination to relevant focal persons at mission level aiming at reinforcing security and safety of Handicap International staff and assets.
- Demonstrate an ethics and professional practice:
- Show professional ethics, respect and promote Handicap International mandate
- Among others, he/she respects beneficiary’s privacy and confidentiality (he/she only share medical information with medical staff/persons directly involved in beneficiary’s care)
- Respect the Handicap International protection of children policy and protection of beneficiaries from sexual exploitation and abuse policyand report to your line manager any non-respect of HI’s policies amongst the teams or partners.
- Report any incident or act that causes any harm to beneficiary or to others.
- Always interact with children with the presence of their parents or caregivers
- Always respect a refusal of service.
- Work with the best of knowledge and abilities to offer a good quality psychosocial support
- Show abilities and competences to execute an efficient rehabilitation intervention.
- Compliant to the MHPSS Standard Operating Procedure:
- Follow the MHPSS SOP for frequency, number and duration of the PSS sessions.
- Distribute PSS kits as per the MHPSS SOP
- Respect the beneficiary selection criteria.
- Follow the referral procedure according to the SOP
- Regularly participate in the clinical supervision sessions
- Be in close contact with technical specialist and seek technical advice.