Paraprofessional Researcher

Organizational Background:
Heartland Alliance International (HAI) is the youngest and fastest growing part of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, which is a family of organizations that has been leading anti-poverty and social justice work in Chicago for more than 125 years. HAI is comprised of nearly a dozen country offices operating programs on a broad range of human rights issues globally as well as the Chicago-based Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, which serves individuals from more than 50 countries. HAI is making significant investments in its programming and leadership in the fields of trauma-informed mental health care and access to justice for marginalized people. It is also an industry leader in access to high-quality and stigma-free health care. Across all of its programs, HAI promotes progressive, innovative approaches to human rights protection and gender equality.

Overview:
Heartland Alliance International (HAI) has been building the capacity of paraprofessional and community based workers, working in the primary healthcare system, to delivery trauma-focused mental health services for over a decade. Beginning with work in Iraq, HAI has used this approach in Colombia and is currently utilizing a similar approach in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is an innovative and necessary model given limitations and gaps in mental health infrastructure in many post-conflict and low resource countries. Moreover, this model is in keeping with the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), which seeks to increase access to mental health services by integrating mental health into national health systems, helping national governments determine personnel structure and competencies, and by providing general practice guidelines. HAI is interested in expanding this model within current countries where the program is being implemented as well as other countries.

The consultancy is intended to be undertaken by a team a two people, with one having primary responsibility for travel and original data collection and the other focused on desk review and data analysis. The project is divided into two main sections. One of the consultants will conduct a desk review of scholarly and grey literature. The other consultant will travel to identified countries to collect original data from HAI country office staff, local mental health providers and/or global mental health key informants as needed with a focus on understanding the key trauma-focused needs within the country/identified region, the role of paraprofessionals and lay counselors in health systems and the extent to which health systems and health professionals are equipped to respond to trauma-focused needs. The country visits will also include attention to documenting the formal mental health structures and resources that exist in the country, educational opportunities for formal
mental health and trauma-specific training, certification and training programs and use of lay and community workers in delivering care.

Key Responsibilities of the Consulting Team:

• Conduct a document review and participate in meetings to better understand HAI’s existing work.
• Conduct a desk review of scholarly and grey literature.
• Travel will be required by one team member to 2-3 countries, to be finalized in collaboration with HAI staff. Communicate with HAI field teams to collect original data from HAI country office staff, local informants and global mental health key informants to document pressing trauma-related needs, the role of paraprofessional in health systems, capacity of health and mental health providers to respond to trauma-related needs.
• Document formal health and mental health structures that exist in each country, educational opportunities for formal mental health training and to what extent they focus on trauma care, certification and training programs, and use of lay and community workers in delivering care.
• Meet regularly with HAI’s Mental Health Technical Advisor and other relevant team members to discuss progress and share findings.
• Submit a high-quality final report documenting findings.
• Prepare and deliver a final presentation of findings to HAI Chicago staff and field staff.
• Deliverables:
• Prepare a final report, a report summary, and a webinar documenting findings, no later than June 10, 2016.

Timeline:
This consultancy includes will includes a total of 60 workdays to be divided among the two consultants. The consultancy will culminate in a 20-30 final report and power point presentation summarizing key findings by June 10, 2016.

Qualifications:
To perform this job successfully, the consulting team must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or competencies required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• General experience working in global mental health including, trauma-focused mental health expertise with violence affected communities, and familiarity with delivering mental health services in post-conflict and low resource settings
• Master's degree in clinical social work or a PsyD or PhD in psychology
• An ability to work independently
• Demonstrated professionalism and ability to maintain organizational confidentiality
• Strong written and oral communication skills, and demonstrated ability to write and clearly articulate ideas.

HOW TO APPLY:

Please submit a proposal, including cover letter and CV, to HAInternational@heartlandalliance.org, with “Paraprofessional Research” in the subject line no later than April 8, 2016. HAI is willing to consider applications submitted by teams of two consultants and will also consider individual applications.