Background:

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, and through funding made available by the World Bank is implementing a strategic project on Early Childhood Development (ECD). The holistic and comprehensive approach to ECD has been ensured through cooperative implementation of the project by the Palestinian Ministry of Education (MOE), Health (MOH) and Social Development (MOSD).

As of 2007, Gaza strip has been subjected to five massive wars and military operations resulting in thousands of deaths, high number of wounded and massive forced displacement. Strict closure of Gaza strip, restriction of mobility of people and goods from and into Gaza resulted in major deterioration of living conditions, high unemployment and poverty.

Health system in Gaza has been severely affected by the military operations and closure. Shortage in medical supplies, equipment and physical infrastructure has been the result of constrained access to goods and materials. Restricted movement of people resulted in deprivation of access to care, especially for those in need for treatment outside the strip and limited the opportunities of health workers receive highly needed training and qualification upgrade to cope with increased demand on services.

Mental health in Gaza strip has been a critically hit area. Direct and indirect exposure to traumatizing events has been massive and has affected almost all the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza strip. Five massive wars launched over Gaza caused a condition of repeated exposure and hence deepened the negative effect of war on the mental health of population.

Combined with lack of training opportunities, increased need and demand for mental health and psychosocial care poses a clear challenge on the healthcare and psychosocial sector. The recent war on Gaza raised the need for urgent intervention to care for people in need for psychosocial and mental health interventions, and also the need for upgrading the capacity of mental health, psychosocial human resources.

It also raised the need for effective preventive and resilience building interventions to help people deal with stress and enable families early and effectively care for their children in need.

Training program

Capacity building and training needs identified stem from the severe shortages in human resources available in Gaza within the mental health and psychosocial area at the community, primary healthcare and secondary healthcare levels.

Based on review of capacity building needs in the area of mental health and psychosocial support, five training areas were defined and will form the subject of large capacity building effort for the objective to create a significant capacity prevent, detect and treat mental health and psychosocial challenges.

Child development is determined by neurological, genetic, intellectual and emotional factors affecting the child as from the gestational period. Toxic stress during pregnancy, early childhood period is thought to be associated with disturbance of the child development and affect the child all through his/her life.

Exposure to stressors in terms of violence, neglect and mental health incidents can leave devastating impact on the mental wellbeing and development of the child, especially within the most critical first 1000 days.

Detection of mental health challenges and deviations, developmental and learning disorders builds on accumulated knowledge of developmental psychology that includes theories about the formation of intellect, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, social interaction, motoric and neurological performance.

Within the scope of the ECD project and in the context of Gaza, the focus of this training program will be on children needs and the needs for caregivers whether within the family, community, school or healthcare institutions.

The Palestinian Ministry of health with funding from the World Bank seeks the services of a qualified individual consultant to undertake the implementation of a training program addressing mental health of children in pre-school age. The training will cover the basic concepts of mental health, impact of violence and management of mental health disorders affecting pre-school children.

Description:

This 60-hour training course focuses on providing training participants with the knowledge and skills to recognize and detect mental health disorders and developmental and learning difficulties among children within the community, service delivery setting or at early childhood care and education facility.

Target group:

A group of ECD, and school practitioners with a total of 30 professionals selected to represent:

• Geographical representation of Gaza districts
• Providers (Governmental, UNRWA, NGOs)
• Sectors (education, ECD)
• At least one staff from MOE in Gaza who could serve as a future trainer
• At least one staff from MOSD in Gaza who could serve as a future trainer

Intended learning objectives (ILO):

By the end of this training course participants will be able to:

1. Understand the concept of child development, toxic stress and factors affecting normal development during gestation and early childhood period.
2. Understand the impact of war on the normal mental health and development in the early years of the child life
3. Recognize and understand the major mental health, psychosocial and developmental disorders (neuropsychological) that affect children in early years and at the school age.
4. Understand the importance of early detection and apply basic screening tool for early detection of mental health, psychosocial and developmental disorders
5. Recognize the importance of referral of suspected or confirmed cases and appropriately use the referral system in place.

Deliverables:

The selected specialized training expert will be requested to provide the below deliverables:

• A detailed training program description including intended learning objectives (ILOS) in line with suggested below, training session schedule and evaluation tools
• A training plan that includes evidence-based training materials a plan for the practical training component
• A final report on the training, including:
  1. A summary of key areas of strengths and weaknesses identified in both the training content and delivery method, based on participants’ feedback. The administration and reporting of results of pre- and post-surveys would be a plus.
  2. A final, organized compilation of all training materials used, with any suggested improvements to the content based on participants’ feedback
  3. A proposed scale-up plan for the training, including considerations for continuously updating the skills of participants in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in child development and/or child psychology
• At least 7 years of experience in mental health and psychosocial service
• Proven experience in early childhood development within the context in Gaza
• Extensive knowledge and experience in assessment tools for mental health, child development and referral system
• Well oriented in the function of referral system in Gaza
• proven experience in training in the area of early childhood development

Experts that meet the requirements should submit an expression of interest to include the following: 

1. A cover letter including the suitability of the candidate (individual) to the required task.
2. A curriculum vitae of expert to be working on the assignment.
3. A technical offer in response to the call for Expert TOR, showing the Expert/s understanding of the assignment and how this can be taken forward. 

The expression of interest package must be submitted to Ministry of Health via email: [email protected], by indicating this title in the e mail subject [Pre School Child Mental Health] no later than 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday 31 August 2022.