National Consultancy to Develop a Mental Health Handbook Guide for Pregnant Adolescent Girls at UNICEF

How can you make a difference? 

• UNICEF seeks a consultant to support MoH in developing and testing a handbook for mental health integration for pregnant adolescent girls into the MoH Continuum of care packages for ANC, MCH, and PNC. The mental health guide will be contextualized and responsive to the developmental needs of this population. It will outline practice strategies, and services indicators, and provide tools to guide the provision of mental health support to pregnant adolescent girls by health service providers working the antenatal care clinics, labor and delivery wards, and Postnatal care clinics in primary and tertiary level health facilities.

Objectives 

• Development of a Handbook for Mental health integration into ANC, PNC, and MCH for pregnant adolescent girls 
• Conduct field testing of the Mental health handbook in 4 counties – Nairobi, Kisumu, West Pokot, and Kilifi at the  county referral hospital and one sub-county hospital
• Integration of Mental health support for pregnant adolescent girls’ handbook guide into the National Continuum of care package from ANC through to PNC and MCH

Tasks 

• Prepare and submit an inception report and discuss the expected deliverables to the MoH. The report should include timelines, methodology, key definitions, a preliminary list of key resources and source materials, stakeholder mapping and consultation plan, review draft structure.
• Review and analyze research, key documents, and reports to include lessons learned and past achievements, best practices, strengths, and weaknesses of the mental health programs implemented (targeting adolescents and pregnant adolescents) with the development of Draft Zero of the handbook guide.
• Present the Draft zero of the handbook for review by MOH - Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Division of Mental Health key stakeholders TWG. 
• Field Testing of the handbook in 4 counties – Nairobi, Kisumu, West Pokot, and Kilifi at the county referral hospital and one sub-county hospital as part of the continuum of care package for ANC through to PNC for pregnant adolescents, with further refinement of handbook 
• Present the Draft handbook to MOH - Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Division of Mental Health stakeholders TWG for approval after necessary revisions. 
• Plan and facilitate the validation meeting with relevant stakeholders on the draft handbook guide.
• Present finalized draft to MOH in soft copy Word, PDF, and slide summary 

Deliverables

• Inception report 
• Comprehensive report of the desktop review and analysis 
• Detailed stakeholders’ consultations and workshop reports 
• Draft a handbook guide for Mental health support for Pregnant adolescents
• Handbook guide for Mental health support for Pregnant adolescents (Word, PDF, 20-slide PowerPoint Presentation).
• Handbook guide for Mental health for Pregnant adolescents integrated into the Continuum of Care package for ANC through PNC

Collaborations and work relationships

• The consultant will work closely with the MOH Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health and with the UNICEF Health specialist – Maternal and Newborn Health.
• The consultant will also engage other relevant divisions within MoH - Division of Adolescent and School Health, Division of Mental Health, County Health Management team in the 4 counties (Nairobi, Kisumu, West Pokot, and Kilifi), and Maternal and Newborn Health TWG partners at National MoH level.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Medicine, Nursing, Psychology, Social sciences or related fields
• A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree. 
• A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in one or more of the following fields: Adolescent health, Mental health, Reproductive health, Maternal health.
• Demonstrated experience in the successful development of guidelines, policies, SOPs, and manuals.
• Experience in facilitating and coordinating technical meetings and workshops in the area of policy development is an added advantage.
• Prior experience working in the Ministry of Health, developing and implementing partners, and experience working with adolescents and young people is desirable. 
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.