Consultancy Development of ACF's clinical approach - Paris

Context and rationale

The MHCP sector implements Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) programs (stand alone or as a component included in multi-sectorial projects) that include activities at all levels of the IASC intervention pyramid[1]. These last years, MHCP sector has developed MHPSS interventions in countries that have been experiencing crisis of different nature (conflict, natural disasters, epidemics, discrimination, etc.). The different crisis have been bringing under the spot light the need to build on these experiences and develop the required positioning, expertise, guidelines and tools for better quality ACF interventions in such contexts.

ACF is implementing psychological support/clinical work in emergencies. Needs are huge and uncovered, especially in levels 3 and 4 of the pyramid. Globally, requests have been done for having more organisations involved in these activities and in different countries/zones. The specialised services are very challenging in LMIC because of lack of resources and qualified staffs and lack of adequate intervention protocols. Research is little on what are the most relevant and effective interventions and different researches are on-going currently to produce evidence. Even less researches are published on how to work with very young children with MHPS needs and what are the best interventions to propose.

Objectives of the consultancy

The purpose of this project is to:

• Support the definition of ACF’s strategy on clinical work
• Having a clear framework and guidelines for services for ACF’s work at the top layer of the pyramid (Specialised services), specifying the main principles and do’s and don’ts for ACF’s approach on psychological support

Tasks

• Briefing session by Mental Health Care Practices advisor and senior advisor on psychological support work and consultancy details and expectations (half of a working day)
• Review of available tools and documents on clinical work including recommendations of the most recent researches + ACF experience in that domain (3 working days)
• Work on the positioning doc of clinical work for ACF (3 working days)
• Update the draft document on do’s and don’ts on clinical work within ACF (1 day)
• Design and development of the clinical work toolbox with a user’s guide (2,5 working days), including a capitalisation folders of previous ACF experiences
• Development of a document on clinical supervision (definition, how to do it and training kit on supervision for Project Managers) (1 day)
• Review and update the M&E recommendations for clinical work (including choice of scales, indicators and measures) (2 days)
• Development of a manual for clinical work with children (optional: according to the expertise of the consultant and the hypothesis that such a manual will not be found during the literature review. Number of days to be defined)
• Writing a brief communication document on ACF clinical work for internal and external communication (1/2 day)
• Presentation of the work and debriefing with MHCP advisor and senior advisor (half of a working day)

Deliverables

• Position paper with principles of the clinical approach within ACF, do’s & don’ts.
• Toolbox for field implementation with recommended approaches and protocols with different populations (adults: individually and in groups, caregivers-babies, children in and out of schools, etc.) and M&E for clinical work
• Manual of clinical work with children (optional. To be confirmed with the consultant)
• A brief communication document on about clinical work based on existing ACF’s experiences and presentation of its approach
• Clinical supervision document

Contract duration & deadline: Timeframe to achieve the outputs: from 10th of September to 20th of December 2016. 14 days of work in total (not including the writing of a manual with children)

Location of the consultant

Possibility to work from home. If possible, briefing and debriefing moments should take place in Paris to work directly with MHCP’s senior advisor. Skype call meetings each week on the basis of exchanges by email.

Qualifications

Consultant’s necessary qualifications and experience:

• Background on MHPSS in emergencies settings
• Master’s degree or PHD in clinical psychology
• Previous experience with ACF is a plus
• Experience on conducting MHPSS programs and clinical work in developing countries and in difficult and insecure environments
• Proved experience on writing methodologies and developing tools
• At ease with distance work with teams, good communication and coordination skills
• Rigorous, organised, sense of anticipation
• Fluent in English, French a plus
• Computer literate for MS Office

PAYMENT: ACF’s France consultancy contract. Fixed daily rate: to be determined with the consultant.

ACF and the consultant will agree on a fixed daily rate and a number of days to work over a period of time to accomplish the given mission. A monthly timesheet of effectively worked days is sent by the consultant and validated by ACF’s contact person. At the end, a monthly payment is made based on the monthly timesheet.

RESOURCES

ACF France will provide to the consultant:

• All relevant documents to the project that are available to ACF and in line with the objectives of the consultancy.
• ACF France will manage the translation of documents from English to French afterwards and will bear the costs of it.

The consultant will use its own resources to achieve the given mission:

• A private insurance
• A computer virus free and with official licences for soft wares
• A private & secure internet connexion
• A landline and/or a mobile phone

[1] IASC Guidelines on Mental Health & Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

HOW TO APPLY:

To apply

Please send your CV and a cover letter to Cécile Bizouerne,cbizouerne@actioncontrelafaim.org with “Application to Clinical Consultancy” as the subject of the email before the 1st of September, 2016.