PSYCHOLOGIST/PSYCHIATRIST OCBA STAFF CARE (BASED IN ANY OCBA HUB)

GENERAL CONTEXT
Médecins Sans Frontières is an international independent medical-humanitarian organization, which offers assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation.

MSF is a civil society initiative that brings together individuals committed to the assistance of other human beings in crisis. As such MSF is by choice an association.Each individual working with MSF does it out of conviction and is ready to uphold the values and principles of MSF.

The MSF movement is built around five operational directorates supported by MSF’s 21 sections, 24 associations and other offices together worldwide. MSF OCBA is one of those directorates. The operations are implemented by field teams and the mission coordination teams; together with the organizational units based in Barcelona, Athens and decentralized in Nairobi, Dakar and Amman. The field operations are guided and supported by 5 Operational Cells, the Emergency Unit and other departments supporting operations, including the HR Department.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE AND JOB ENVIRONMENT

General scope 

• The general objective of the Psychologist OCBA Staff Care is to contribute to the improvement of the psychosocial health of the field teams and its members, guaranteeing mental health support by:
• Providing psychosocial support in case of critical incidents
• Providing psychosocial support during acute stress situations and individual distress
• Developing and implementing strategies and interventions aimed at improving the mental health of the field teams. 
• Developing policies related to mental health of field teams 

Place in the organisation 

• Part of the OCBA Staff Care Team in the HR department 
• Reports to the Head of Staff Care Area 
• Works closely with the Operational Cells and with the “Country Management Team” of missions, to analyze the psychosocial situation of the teams as well as to prepare proposals and implement them.
• Coordinates a network of external professionals who provides support to the field teams, both at national and international levels. 

MAIN TASKS

Critical Incident support

• Participates in the on-call service for critical incidents (under the lead of the psychologist in charge of coordination of critical incident support)
• Back up as member of the Crisis Team set up for major critical incidents. 
• Participate in critical incident field visits.
• Provide remote support to team members and dependents affected by critical incidents.
• Reinforce the critical incident external support team by identifying trained psychologist able to be part of this roster – with a special focus on regional support networks as well as network in Spain. 
• Support OCBA teams evacuated and ensured their psychological follow up during the evacuation in close collaboration with the operational cell and other relevant team/departments. 

Coordination, revision and implementation of psychosocial briefing and debriefing procedures

• Participate in the coordination of the procedures ensuring international OCBA staff have a return talk organized on return (emotional debriefing).
• Carry out return talks.
• Refer international mobile staff to an external referral network of psychologists when needed.
• Identify volunteers motivated to reinforce the PSU capacity to ensure     return talks for international mobile staff working with OCBA.
• Participate in BFs - DBFs of HOMs, Medcos, HRCOs, Fieldcos and PMRs.

Psychological Support

• Provide psychological support to team members in the field, national and international, remotely and during field visits.
• Support punctually in the referrals of HQ personnel presenting mental health distress.
• Support staff and their families during medical evacuations. 
• Advise on the management and support of team members in distress.
• Advise and provide support to the Mission Coordination Teams (HQ cell and field coordination teams) in the management and follow up of issues related to the team’s mental and psychosocial health.
• Maintain regular contact with counterparts in the field (HoM, MedCO, FC) and in HQ (in the cells: Rehuco and Tesaco; in the partner section, dir HR).
• Carry out field visits aiming at strengthening capacity for psychosocial support to field staff at mission level.
• Subject to availability, participate in the support of other OC’s team
• members in the countries where OCBA is doing a field visit.

Building and supporting external networks

• Identify and develop a network of psychologists in different countries able to collaborate with the incident response, to participate in programmed field visits and to support return talks with international mobile staff working with OCBA. 
• Support MSF Spain Staff Care in the development of a network of external psychologists. 
• Support and technical supervision of the external psychologists contracted at mission level. 

Advise and support on staff mental health illnesses

• Support the staff health responsible in mission in identifying pathways for care to staff with mental health illnesses.
• Advise and build the capacity of staff health responsible in mission regarding mental health illnesses of staff.
• Advise the Staff Care Team on mental health illnesses of individual international mobile staff.
• Advise and support MSF Spain Staff Care team on mental health illnesses of individual staff.

Knowledge production

• Contribute to the development and implementation of research actions and psychosocial assessments related to the mental health of the teams. 
• Contribute to the development of documents aimed to support and to reinforce resilience.
• Take the lead in the preparation and translation of tools and technical documents regarding management of staff mental health illnesses. 

Trainings

• Participate in training initiatives linked to psychosocial support for our field staff and staff in decentralized offices. 
• Participate in awareness and preparatory programs for the psychosocial support of the field teams.
• Carry out context-specific briefings for coordinators and other key field managers. 
• Preparation and facilitation of training modules linked to staff mental health illnesses.  

General duties 

• Participate in meetings of the Staff Care team, the Human Resources department, as well as in other meetings of the Field HR and Medical Operations Service if/when requested. 
• Participate in interdisciplinary working groups of the department. 
• Participate in the development of the annual planning of activities and resource allocation. 
• Participate in the follow up and reporting of activities and budget 

SELECTION CRITERIA

• At least 3 years of social and clinical experience as a Psychiatrist or psychologist.
• Knowledge and experience in emotional support/management of teams under crisis situations.
• Experience in management of mental health illnesses. 
• Comprehension of/and work experience in the international context of MSF is compulsory.
• Experience in mental health interventions in conflict situation, violence and catastrophe.
• Fluent in French and English.
• Knowledge of Spanish is highly valued.
• User-level IT skills (Microsoft Office applications).

CONDITIONS

• Position based in any MSF OCBA Hub (Barcelona, MSF-Spain office delegations, Bogota, Amman, Dakar or Nairobi). Final location will be subject to the employability of the preselected candidate (residency, work permit, etc.).
• Occasional travel to the field.
• Contract duration: permanent.  
• Starting date: July 2025.
• Full-time position.
• Annual gross salary: HQ-3B level + secondary benefits based on MSF OCBA Reward Policy. Subjected to local conditions.

HOW TO APPLY

• Applicants should forward their CV and cover letter.
• Closing date: May 22nd, 2025, 23:59 CET (Central European Time).

MSF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, race, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. We are committed to achieving a balanced gender distribution and therefore encourage women to apply.

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. MSF provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, teamwork, integrity and a healthy balance of work and life. MSF does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo reference checks.

Médecins Sans Frontières, as a responsible employer, under the¨Ley General de la Discapacidad de 2013 (LGD)¨ invite those persons with a recognized disability and with an interest in the humanitarian area to apply for the above-mentioned position.