Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone (SL) and Liberia and GOALs Response to Date
The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest Ebola outbreak in history and the first in West Africa. The current outbreak is affecting multiple countries in West Africa with Sierra Leone/Liberia first reporting cases in March of this year. As of September of this year Liberia has reported over 3,000 cases with Sierra Leone reporting over 2.500 cases. Based on current rates of infection it is expected that case numbers will climb significantly in the current months. GOAL has been working in Sierra Leone for several years now and has been active in the Ebola Health response since the outbreak was declared. Due to the scale of the outbreak in Liberia GOAL has decided to establish a response in Liberia to provide assistance to the large numbers of people who have become infected in recent weeks and are expected to be infected in the coming weeks and months ahead.
Summary of the Role:
The psychosocial officer will provide psychosocial support to patients and families and to the clinical care staff within the EVD centre.
Key Responsibilities
- In consultation with the EVD centre medical manager and the nurse in charge ensure appropriate psychosocial support to patients and their families
- Ensure regular psychosocial support to international staff to allow them the space to deal with working in the ETC
- Ensure appropriate psychosocial support to national staff to allow them the space to deal with working in the ETC and the fear and possible stigmatisation they will encounter in the community
- Train clinical care staff in key aspects of psychosocial support including WHO Psychological First Aid (PFA) guidelines adapted to the Ebola response
- Assist in hiring national MHPSS staff
- Train and supervise relevant local staff (e.g. psychosocial officers) in basic psychosocial support (e.g. community outreach, facility based support) for people affected by Ebola and their families
- Provide staff self-care workshops and individual sessions and work with the GOAL country teams to improve staff well-being and support
Qualifications:
- The qualified candidate will have relevant educational qualifications such as a degree in social work, counselling or psychology (MA or PhD) with 3+ years working experience
- Previous NGO experience require
- Strong organizational and supervisory skills
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to relate to and motivate local staff effectively
- Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions independently
- Extremely flexible, and can cope with stressful workloads and frustration
- Creativity and the ability to work with limited resources
- Contract Duration: 3-6 months
Due to the nature of our work, we aim to fill roles as promptly as possible and therefore may fill posts prior to the advertised closing date. Potential applicants are therefore advised to submit their details as soon as possible for consideration.
