National Stress Counsellor (part-time, 70%)

Critical Incident Stress Management Section (CISMS) personnel, together with regionally engaged National Stress Counsellors, are primarily answerable for stress administration, resilience constructing and psychological well being assist following important incidents. They have particular obligations in emergency preparedness, emergency response and comply with up providers. Furthermore, they monitor stressors that have an effect on UN personnel, determine tendencies and tailor psychosocial assist providers to deal with and promote holistic workers psychosocial wellbeing in coordination with the native UN physician, the Regional Security Advisor, the HQ Medical Service Division, HR Officers, UN Counsellors from different UN companies, funds and packages and senior and line managers UN system broad.

The National Stress Counsellor will probably be primarily based in Fiji and supply psychosocial assist providers for employees and dependents situated throughout the nation. The present Security Level within the nation is very risky and in consequence, the psychosocial well-being of workers is impacted severely. The unpredictability of civil unrest, lack of entry to medical services, and the ever-present risk of crime have made UN personnel extremely susceptible to excessive cumulative stress and important incident stress leading to bodily and psychological trauma and sickness.

In addition to the aforementioned points that have an effect on psychosocial wellbeing of UN personnel, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in lots of international locations instituting drastic measures together with lockdowns to cut back the unfold of the virus and related fatalities. COVID 19 disaster is taken into account as a protracted well being emergency that has complicated psychosocial repercussions for UN personnel within the brief and the long run that require professional psychological interventions to mitigate antagonistic psychological well being penalties.

Psychological reactions to COVID-19 akin to panic, nervousness and denial are well-known in populations the world over. Other vital penalties of the pandemic throughout the globe embrace psychological and monetary burden of the sickness, loss of life, drastic modifications within the socio-cultural and behavioural patterns triggered by virus containment measures (i.e. motion restrictions / closed borders, folks carrying masks, lower of direct inter-personal contacts, modifications within the cultural mourning and bereavement processes) that add on to the misery of households and exacerbate the disaster reactions. Domestic violence and intimate accomplice violence are additionally areas of concern. The UN Security Management Team in collaboration with the UN stress counsellor, medical and safety professionals within the headquarters and in nation are required to undertake applicable psychosocial methods and interventions to help UN personnel and their eligible members of the family. The TOR attracts upon the expertise and the outcomes of the actions of workers/stress counsellors within the pandemic outbreaks of infectious illnesses akin to Ebola virus illness and influenza.

Due to the above causes and in step with the UN Duty of Care Framework, it’s important to proceed the providers of a part-time in-house stress counsellor for psychosocial assist providers for UN personnel and dependents.The predominant function of the National Stress Counsellor will probably be to construct a sustainable stress administration system within the UN Offices working in nation and to enhance important incident stress administration preparedness of the UN safety administration system (UNSMS). Critical incident psychological well being assist together with the availability of psychological first help could also be required to deal with psychological well being emergencies together with acute stress reactions, assist victims of crime, present assist following medical emergencies and accidents, bereavements, household violence and different points.

The National Stress Consellor will report back to the Regional Security Advisor and the Regional Stress Counsellor for Asia Pacific international locations, CISMS, UNDSS, New York. As a member of the Crisis Management Team (CMT) of the UN, the National Stress Counsellor coordinates with the UN Fiji Senior Medical Officer on related issues pertaining to psychological providers for UN personnel and dependents within the Fiji MCO. 

The National Stress Counsellor will work below the executive supervision of the Regional Security Advisor and the technical supervision of the CISMS Headquarter Regional Stress Counsellor, and in collaboration with the UN Senior Medical Adviser in Suva.

The incumbent will implement a variety of stress administration actions, together with the UN strategic framework on important incident stress prevention and administration (MSCIS-2015).

Internal Task
The incumbent will probably be answerable for the next duties: –

• Perform psychosocial wants assessments through surveys and focus teams and monitor the determinants of stress within the UN Offices and personnel.
• Provide particular person and group counselling periods associated to important incidents.
• Organize coaching periods on stress and stress associated points. 
• Provide referral recommendation to UN workers. 
• Advise the UN SMT/Country Team Management on culturally relevant and gender delicate stress mitigating methods, and actions.
• Provide studies to the Resident Coordinator, Security Advisor and to the UNDSS CISMS Regional Stress Counsellor on all actions sustaining due confidentiality.

External Task

• Liaise with native specialists and establishments within the nation for referral, in addition to with UN line managers, medical medical doctors, and native physicians with a purpose to construct a community of pros able to assist and intervene in case of want.

The incumbent performs different duties inside their purposeful profile as deemed vital for the environment friendly functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Business Management    

• Communication. Communicate in a transparent, concise and unambiguous method each by means of written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and select communication strategies relying on the viewers. Ability to handle communications internally and externally, by means of media, social media and different applicable channels.

Business Direction & Strategy

• Strategic Thinking. Develop efficient methods and prioritized plans in step with UNDP’s mission and targets, primarily based on the systemic evaluation of challenges, alternatives and potential dangers; hyperlink the overall imaginative and prescient to actuality on the bottom to create tangible focused options; be taught from quite a lot of sources to anticipate and successfully reply to each present and future tendencies; reveal foresight.
• Effective resolution making. Take selections in a well timed and environment friendly method in step with one’s authority, space of experience and assets and consider potential wider implications.

Ethics. 

• Ethics recommendation and steerage. Ability to shortly analyze complicated reality patterns and supply complete, delicate, and confidential ethics recommendation and steerage

External 

• Relations & Advocacy| Communications. Advocacy technique and implementation    Ability to create and implement advocacy methods which result in impactful change