Health Program Intern, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Intern

Internship Overview: The MHPSS Health Program Intern will provide support with the documentation of best practices and innovative solutions related to MHPSS services that sit within the health system.Under the supervision of the Mental Health Integration Technical Advisor, the MHPSS Health Program Intern will collaborate with the MH PHC team, Health MHPSS staff within country programs, and technical advisors from other technical units to develop IRC MHPSS Needs Assessment Package, review of country level suicide and self-harm data, and support various ongoing initiatives of the MH PHC team.

Supervision of this position will include weekly meetings with the Mental Health Integration Technical Advisor focused on mentorship, key learning objectives and specific project updates and opportunities to join regular meetings with the primary health care team for learning.

Major Responsibilities:

• Participate in global webinars about MHPSS programs and best practices; summarize main learnings for IRC programs

• Support any work related to the sub-working groups of the IASC MHPSS Reference Group that the MH PHC team members are developing

• Participate in IRC meetings about COVID-19 MHPSS program adaptations; support the development of case studies about program adaptation

• Review existing MHPSS tools and trainings and develop draft MHPSS needs assessment package

• Support knowledge management of MHPSS resources

• Complete IRC MHPSS COVID-19 Learning Series as a capacity building experience

• Support teams with visibility of their World Mental Health Day activities

• Ad hoc support for technical support to MHPSS country programs

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the period, the intern will have:

• Improved understanding of IRC’s approach to MHPSS within health programs

• Improved understanding of MHPSS background literature in relation to specific topics as assigned and agreed upon (e.g. MHPSS measures, background, program approaches).

• Strong understand of MHPSS within health monitoring and evaluation practices and tools

• In-depth understanding of select IRC MHPSS country programs and approaches and how they have adapted during COVID-19

• Improved skills in developing, revising and implementing MHPSS tools

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:Mental Health Integration Technical Advisor

Working relationships: Mental Health Technical Advisors, Primary Health Care Technical Advisors, MHPSS leads within health programs