(Onco)Psychologist

Context and  project description

Palestinian children have been living in an apartheid reality for years, where conditions of structural violence are not equally met with opportunities for physical and psychological trauma care. The ongoing escalation of violence in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories must not disrupt the care of sick children, particularly those suffering from cancer. According to international law, children are entitled to special protection and must be shielded from violence at all times and provided with care in any circumstance. It is estimated that each year in Palestine, 250-300 children are diagnosed with cancer, predominantly leukaemia. Currently, the Beit Jala Governmental Hospital is the only place that provides oncological treatment for children with cancer in the whole of Palestine. Two humanitarian organisations, Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo (VIS) https://www.volint.org/ and Soleterre https://soleterre.org/ ,  have joined forces to support the Huda Al Masri Cancer Department at Beit Jala Hospital in partnership with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). To this end, VIS and ST seek a psychologist or once-psychologist to work at the Huda Al Masri Cancer Department to assist patients, their caregivers, and the medical personnel operating in the department.

Goals and objectives

The selected (onco)psychologist will be in charge of providing focused, non-specialised, and specialised psychological support to children with cancer and their families and of offering psychological support to medical and non-medical personnel operating at the Huda Al Masri Cancer Department.

Activities to be carried out and responsibilities

The following is a non-exhaustive list of activities the post holder will undertake:

• Assessment of patients’ and caregivers’ psychological needs;
• Taking charge of identified patients and their families on the basis of a first psychological assessment;
• Identification and implementation of strategic medium-long-term therapeutic pathways for children;
• Preparation and proposal of counselling programs for caregivers and/or other family members who express the need for psychological support;
• Implementation of family mediation and child-parent therapy for functional coping mechanisms development for patients and their families;
• Sensitisation of patients, their families and non-medical staff on the basics of psychoeducation;
• Psychological follow-up;
• Implementation of community-based psychosocial activities (i.e., psychomotricity with children, support groups for adults, etc.)
• Employment of Soleterre’s psychological tools and data collection according to the requests of its Scientific Committee;
• Staff care coordination (i.e., creation of safe spaces and moments for the staff to share work-related feelings)
• Availability to conduct trainings on mental health and psychosocial support themes, with a specific focus on psycho-oncology;
• Contribution to the creation of a referral system for patients in need of support of any other kind (i.e., psychiatric, legal, protection, etc.);
• Service mapping and stakeholder analysis in the framework of mental health and psychosocial support activities to stay up-to-date about the existing services;
• Creation of networks among the identified actors operating in the framework of psycho-oncology in collaboration with the project coordinator;
• Drafting of periodic reports – on a monthly basis – according to the dispositions by VIS country representative based in Bethlehem;

Participation in planned meetings organized by VIS and Soleterre

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Essential Requirements:

• Diploma in Psychology;
• At least three years of proven experience in the field of clinical psychology and/or psycho-oncology;
• Good ability to manage emergency situations (i.e., acute states of neurosis and/or psychosis);
• Knowledge of family mediation interventions;
• Experience in and ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems/situations, working in a complex system facing the death and dying of children;
• Experience in providing child-parent therapy.
• A valid professional practice certificate from the competent authorities in Palestine.

Desirable Requirements:

• Experience in the healthcare sector, in terms of psychological support;
• Experience working with children and adolescents, preferably in a paediatric setting;
• Experience with carriers of diseases and/or people with physical/mental impairments;
• Knowledge of psychoeducation therapeutic approach;
• Experience in the staff care domain.

Other Skills:

• Excellent Communication skills.
• Capability to work under pressure.
• Excellent command of Arabic and English, both written and spoken.