Local Psychologist Consultant

Terms of Reference

Local Consultant for the Training for families of PwDs and in particular children with CP and multiple disabilities on the Mental hygiene & how to overcome the disability stigma in the local community

Project:    Improving access of Persons with Disabilities and in particular Children with Cerebral Palsy and Children with multiple disabilities of the Gaza Strip to services adapted to their needs, funded by Echo

Background:

Handicap International (HI) has been operating in Palestine since 1996 and has developed relationship with several disability stakeholders. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics there are around 4,048,403 million Palestinian living in the OPT (2,513,283 million in West Bank and 1,535,120 million in Gaza strip), 40.8% of them (15-19) years of age, 29.4% of them (15-29) years of age and 59.2% of them (20-29) years of age. According to general estimations by WHO, between 7-10% of a given population would have some kind of disability; in the Palestinian Territories, this implies that the figure would be around 284,000 – 404,000 people.

According to the last records, the prevalence of disability in the OPT was about 7% (relaxed definition) with similar prevalence in each of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While the prevalence of disability using the narrow definition was 2.7% distributed as 2.9% in the West Bank and 2.4% in Gaza Strip; while it was 2.9% for males and 2.5% for females[1].  Taken together, this implies that the total number of persons with disability in OPT is around 113,000-287,000.

 

Scope of Work

HI is running a project to improve the services provided for children with cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities. Families of persons with disabilities and in particular children with CP and multiple disabilities in Gaza are in need of being more aware of the rehabilitation needs and aspects which will assist them to provide basic rehabilitation to their children at home.

In order to increase the awareness of the families, they should acquire the basic knowledge about the mental hygiene and how to overcome the external and internal stressors in order to be able to actively participate in the rehabilitation process, This will enable them to assist in the early detection of disabilities and guide them to seek to diagnosis & treatment.

Many families are not aware about these topics which negatively affect their access to the needed early detection & intervention, education and proper integration of families within the community. The main goal of the training is to empower families to practice their active role in the rehabilitation process and ensuring services provided are adapted to their children needs.

Description of Duties

·         To design the training package of two modules in both English & Arabic in coordination with HI team on:

1- Mental hygiene (early intervention, mental health and developmental disabilities)

2- How to overcome the disability stigma in the local communities? (Definition of the social stigma, the effects of social stigma, stigma and discrimination, and strategies to overcome social stigma)

·         To send the training package to HI for revision, feedback, and validation.

·         Design  the daily training evaluation form and send it to HI for revision and validation

·         To implement the training for 3 family groups (15 participants each) in each of the five governorates in Gaza Strip (3 family groups in North Gaza, 3 family groups in Gaza, 3 family groups in Middle area, 3 family groups in Khnyounis, and 3 family groups in Rafah ). Each module will last for two training hours and two modules are to be conducted in one day by the applicants. 

·         To ensure attendance sheet and the daily evaluation form are disseminated and filled in properly by the trainees. and send the daily report to HI

·         To prepare the final training Report including evaluation conclusions / recommendations in English language and submit to HI in no later than two days after implementing each training day modules.

Background technical references:

Normative and basic of the training should be based on the recent world wide documents:

·         WHO World Report on Disability

·         Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities

·         Keeping the promise: realizing the Millennium Development Goals for persons with disabilities towards 2015 and beyond UNITED NATIONS.

 

Profile of the consultant:

• High degree in Psychology
• Previous experience working in the field support for persons with disabilities in particular with babies born at risk, children with CP and multiple disabilities.  
• Fluent in English and Arabic
• Good skills in MS Office software (MS Excel, Access and MS PowerPoint)

 

Time Frame and Work Plan:

The consultant will work for full 15 training days distributed on December 2011/January 2012.

  

Estimated cost to Handicap International

 

 

Conditions of assignment:

·         HI is not responsible for health, work insurance compensation for the consultant during the working days.

·         Transportation cost will not be covered by Handicap International.

·         Consultant will be under HI security rules during his/her mission.

Relation with the HI project team

The consultant will work in close collaboration with HI Rehabilitation and Mainstream Officer and with report to HI Project Manager.

 

Deadlines of submission reports:

·         The final elaborated report on the training with recommendation should be submitted maximum by 2 days after finishing the training day.