Volunteer, Mental Health Clinician

International Medical Corps is a global humanitarian nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through healthcare training, disaster relief and recovery programs.

Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in areas worldwide. By offering training and healthcare to local populations and medical assistance to people at high risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated healthcare systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.

When catastrophe hits, International Medical Corps is often one of the first humanitarian aid organizations on the scene providing rapid and effective aid that saves lives, reduces suffering, and promotes self-reliance.

International Medical Corps provides safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and patient centered care; offers needs-based response according to the context and type of sudden onset disaster (SOD) and/or outbreak in the affected US region, state, or territory; ensures it is accessible to all sections of the population affected by the disaster or emergency, particularly the most vulnerable; and treats patients in a medically ethical manner.

International Medical Corps is accountable to patients and communities, local health system actors and service providers, governmental entities, and its organization and donors. International Medical Corps commits to a coordinated response under the national, state, and local emergency management authorities.

Selected personnel are on standby to deploy to a crisis within 48 hours. Personnel may deploy to new areas of operation or lend support to International Medical Corps teams already on the ground. International Medical Corps maintains a roster of volunteers and staff who have completed pre-deployment paperwork, orientation and training. The roster is updated on a regular basis. Through this expression of interest, applicants maintain professional profiles with International Medical Corps, so that information is complete and readily available for an emergency response deployment.

This position will support International Medical Corps’ emergency response delivering services to disaster-affected populations in US states and territories only.

• *NOTE** Candidates applying to this position are indicating that they are interested in being considered for International Medical Corps’ standby roster for emergency response. Roster members will be contacted only when there is an emergency-response need for which the responder is qualified. This position will not be compensated unless responders are deployed to an emergency response.

SUMMARY: The Volunteer, MH Clinician (domestic) will be responsible for providing mental health and psychosocial support services in a community-based and/or clinic setting. They will be responsible for providing crisis interventions and brief behavioral health counseling, including adult, adolescent and pediatric services, for both chronic and acute conditions. They are expected to triage patients, ensure smooth patient flow, provide crisis intervention and stabilization for patients and staff, clinical behavioral health care, assist with referrals as needed and provide behavioral health, health education and hygiene promotion.

MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide crisis intervention and clinical behavioral health services for disaster-affected populations according to nationally accepted standards and guidelines.
• Ensure patients are accurately registered and recorded for reporting and case management.
• Ensure proper data management through completion of appropriate patient cards, registers, tally sheets, and reports; contribute to daily reporting as directed by the MHPSS Coordinator and Team Lead.
• Monitor behavioral and diagnostic trends, report to supervisor as appropriate
• Provide behavioral health education and hygiene promotion to patients based on their presentation, pre-existing diagnoses, and co-morbidities such as diet, activity, hygiene, etc.
• Attend physical examination of sexual assault patients, as needed
• Work with the deployed emergency response team, which may include the medical team and support staff, to build capacity and enhance their crisis intervention skills
• Collaborate with other departments as needed to ensure smooth implementation and integration of services
• Adhere to administrative directives regarding work schedules, record keeping, and patient communications
• Provide all services free of charge
• MHPSS staff will be assigned additional duties as needed in the response