Mental Health Curriculum Development Consultant

In 2011, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) launched its Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones to confront impunity for widespread sexual violence – used as both a weapon of war and a common crime. Rare cases that made it to court often failed because of insufficient evidence to support survivors’ allegations. In that context, PHR saw medical professionals as powerful change agents and created an initiative to enhance collaboration between medical and legal professionals to collect, document, and analyze forensic evidence to hold perpetrators accountable, and to improve medical care and access to justice for survivors. PHR has been working with doctors, nurses, trauma counsellors, police officers, lawyers, and judges in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to develop comprehensive, standardized methods for collecting forensic evidence of sexual violence to increase the likelihood of effective and successful investigations and prosecutions of these crimes.

PHR is currently working on a project to strengthen Mental Health Care and Forensic Psychological Evidence Collection in Kenya. The project aims at improving sexual violence survivors’ access to mental health care, building local capacity to document forensic psychological evidence to support legal cases and reform policies to ensure survivors nationwide can access critical mental health care and forensic documentation. The project was informed by previous engagement with stakeholders, from health, law enforcement, judicial, academic, development and civil society sectors, who cited a lack of understanding of existing health sector practices and capacity to conduct mental health assessments to support sexual violence cases as well as the role that psychological evidence plays in sexual violence prosecutions.

The ultimate beneficiaries of this project are sexual violence survivors in Kenya. However, the direct beneficiaries of PHR’s proposed activities are multi-sectoral professionals – doctors, clinical officers, nurses, psychologists, social workers, police officers, prosecutors, judges and other allied stakeholders – who will be trained and mentored to build capacity to respond effectively to sexual violence crimes and provide critical mental health support to survivors.

Reports to: Program Officer, Kenya

Scope of Work:

For executing all responsibilities under this Scope of Work section, Consultant will provide updates and reports to and remain in regular communication with the SVCZ Program Officer.  Specifically, the Consultant will:

Develop and design a 3-day mental health training curriculum for frontline medical professionals on the provision of psychological first aid to survivors of sexual violence, understanding the psychological impacts of sexual violence on survivors of sexual violence and the forensic documentation of psychological evidence of sexual violence. The consultant will also be expected to review PHR’s current module on Vicarious trauma and Resilience and incorporate this into the larger curriculum.

Responsibilities

• Conduct onboarding and research through meetings/call(s) with PHR’s Sexual Violence team in Kenya and globally to learn about the sexual violence Program, the mental health project as well as read Comic Relief project documents, national guidance on service provision for survivors of sexual violence and existing PHR training modules. To include relevant meetings with partners where additional information is required.
• Collaborate with other PHR consultants and experts focusing on capacity development and mental health to enhance the curriculum content.
• Draft and design the mental health curriculum, including a preliminary draft, incorporating revisions proposed by the team, and a produce final draft following PHR’s curriculum format.
• Edit and finalize the draft curriculum based on feedback from the PHR and PHR-K teams
• Develop and guide on the introduction of institutional policies, procedures and protocols at health facilities in Nakuru and Nairobi Counties to improve the provision of mental health care to survivors of sexual violence.
• Provide guidance on mentorship activities for students participating in PHR’s mental health capacity development initiatives such as trainings and other pre-service interventions during their internship at the health facilities.
• Upon 15 days of completion of contract, the Consultant will provide a detailed written summary of observations, assessments, and recommendations to the Program Officer.

Deliverables and Deadlines: 

Qualifications and Requirements:  

• A minimum of a post-graduate degree in Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, or any other disciplines related to mental health.
• Demonstrated understanding of human rights and sexual and gender-based violence.
• Experience with teaching, curriculum development and knowledge of adult learning principles will be preferred.
• Knowledge of instructional design methodologies and the evaluation of trainings.
• Ability to prepare comprehensive work plans, execute tasks efficiently, organize work effectively and must have attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills including cross-cultural communication, clear and precise writing.
• Ability to research, analyze and present complex information for consideration.

Deadline for receiving applications: August 13th, 2021

When applying, consultants should indicate their proposed consultancy fees, their technical approach to the consultancy/their understanding of the expected deliverables. Indicate similar work carried out previously.

How to Apply

Please combine your cover letter and resume as a pdf or a word document and send it to resumes@phr.org. Indicate your “Last Name/First Name, Mental Health Curriculum Development Consultant” in the email subject line.

A complete application consists of:

• A thoughtful cover letter explaining why you are qualified for/interested in the Mental Health Curriculum Development Consultant position with PHR.
• Resume/Curriculum Vitae.

Deadline for receiving applications: August 13th, 2021

When applying, consultants should indicate their proposed consultancy fees, their technical approach to the consultancy/their understanding of the expected deliverables. Indicate similar work carried out previously.

Only complete applications in the format requested sent to resumes@phr.org will be considered.

Physicians for Human Rights is an equal opportunity employer. We recruit and hire without regard to race, national origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, prior conviction, arrest history, disability, marital status, veteran status, or age.

For all details: https://phr.org/about/jobs/mental-health-curriculum-development-consultant/