Mental Health Activity Manager - Member Amsterdam Emergency Team

The Emergency Support Department (ESD) is part of operations and plays a key role in responding to (new) humanitarian crises and emergencies. The ESD conducts exploratory assessments; initiates and manages large scale or complex interventions to support people in precarious situations. The ESD also provides support to existing projects and activities in promoting and guarding emergency response capacity, enabling continued functioning of existing projects in long-term emergency and/or highly insecure settings. It coordinates with departments throughout the organisation to ensure and safeguard our emergency response capacity and focus.  

The Edesk is accepting open applications at any time for any position. Currently the Edesk is particularly looking for:  

Member Amsterdam Emergency Team

MENTAL HEALTH ACTIVITY MANAGER

Emergency Team members spend about 90% of their workdays (excluding holidays) in field locations and approximately 10% at headquarters (or work from home) for briefing/debriefing/trainings/’desk work’.

Position in the organisation

• Overall: reports to the Emergency Health Manager in Amsterdam.

• During field assignments reports to relevant Medical Management Team at the project level, typically Medical Team Leader (MTL), and at capital level Medical Coordinator (Medco).

Main objectives of the position 

As a member of the Emergency Team:

• You contribute to the provision of emergency response capacity for the project activities.  This most often consists of providing support within existing missions/projects, to either support in a key specialist position or respond to emergencies within those missions. You may also support the start-up of new interventions. 

• You assess, define, coordinate and monitor all mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) related activities in the project area including development of mental health strategy, recruitment and management of staff, ensuring the quality of care according to MSF protocols.    You will also be responsible for monitoring and reporting all MHPSS activities.

• You can be asked to contribute to emergency support activities including emergency preparation, guidelines update, MS training or other non-field based specific tasks. You must be proactive and willing to jump in where necessary to achieve set goals, eager to learn and grow in positions and have a positive, can-do attitude. 

• In collaboration with the other members of the medical team, MTL and/or Medco, you assess and develop a person-centered approach to MHPSS activities, which takes into consideration the context, culture and event suffered by the population, in the emergency response.

Responsibilities and activities 

More specifically, as an Emergency-team MHPSS profile:

• You take on the accountabilities of the MSF MHAM according to its standard description (International Reference Field Function Grid). 

• You support the preparation for projects, including a rapid assessment of MHPSS needs and implementation of MHPSS activities in emergency projects / new projects / exploratory missions.

• You contribute to the development of MHPSS and intervention strategy, including writing the technical part of the proposal, in project/country response with regards to the organisation of emergency projects.

• You contribute to evaluations/reviews of emergency or other intervention projects.

• You recruit, train and support staff/personnel under your responsibility to perform MHPSS activities, in conformity with MSF guidelines. 

• You will at times be needed to work directly with patients if you have limited or no team available (yet).

• You ensure standardised MSF guidelines, protocols and MHPSS data collection tools are in place and staff are trained on using them.

• In collaboration with other colleagues, you support in training the medical teams, on MHPSS including when needed psychiatric care.

• Work with other members of the team to ensure that MHPSS services are provided ensuring protection principles including confidentiality and do no harm principle. 

• In collaboration with the medical team, you ensure that a referral pathway is set-up if not existing already for protection cases in need of specialized care including severe mental health disorders and sexual and gender-based violence. 

• You inform all staff of lines of communication to Psycho-Social Care Unit (PSCU) services.

• You work in collaboration with the Advocacy Manager to ensure red flag monitoring is in place and reported in a timely manner for patients while upholding patient confidentiality and autonomy.

• You review and develop the technical materials, tools, guidelines and documents (in coordination with OCA Mental Health Advisors), and ensure the implementation of all MH standard protocols and procedures set by MSF in order to provide the most appropriate intervention for patients.

• You maintain good and regular communication and collaboration with other components of the project/mission as well as other relevant external actors according to objectives and context, as well as mapping and regularly updating the existing mental health services.

• You are flexible to support the team in emergency support settings in other ways that may come up.

Candidate Profile 

Essential:

• Master’s degree in clinical psychology

• Working experience of at least 2 years as a psychologist or other similar profession

• 12 months field experience with any of the MSF sections in at least two different projects, of which at least one emergency project or in a high security setting 

• 'Can do mentality’, creative, and capacity to motivate others and lead and collaborate with a team into action

• Knowledge of standard software within MSF-OCA (word/excel/outlook express).

• Willingness to travel to any required area, frequently at short notice and to a different place than you were originally assigned

• Proven organizational skills, diplomatic skills and experience in representation

• A flexible and solution-oriented mentality, and the ability to be decisive in chaotic circumstances

• Fluent in English

Desirable:

• French & Arabic speaking (as well as other languages)

• Experience in various emergency responses

• Experience in high security and middle-income contexts

• Experience in working with survivors of violence

• Knowledge and experience using OCA standard data tools 

We offer

• A fulltime appointment for 1 year with a potential option to renew

• Salary depends on three main factors: domicile, level of responsibility and experience on the job.

• Candidate’s domicile determines which MSF section will act as employer

• 45 holidays per year

• Completion bonus of 1.5 month of extra salary after completion of every 12 months commitment;

• Prioritization for trainings in MSF (external trainings also considered and supported

• A challenging position within the emergency desk/team that seeks to support and grow its team members with direct one-to-one coaching support, trainings and keeping updated with developments and discussions from within the organization

Information & Application

If you recognize yourself in this profile, we welcome you to apply directly via our website and upload a letter of motivation + Curriculum Vitae (in English) as one combined document.

The application deadline is May 5th, 2025, at 23:59 CET.