Staff Counsellor

Minimum age: 25 years old. Nationals of the country of assignment are not eligible, except the assignments in Headquarters duty stations.

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Staff Counselling Unit based in Bamako, the UN Volunteer Staff Counsellor will undertake the following tasks:

Provide counselling services within the designated duty station, as outlined below:

• Perform individual assessments in the case of individual staff members experiencing difficulty coping with and/or presenting with mental health-related symptoms and follow up for additional intervention if indicated;
• Maintain case records, reports and statistics;
• Advise the Chief Staff Counselling Unit as necessary on individual cases where an identified problem is likely to have professional and/or personal impact, such alcohol/substance abuse, depression, anxiety, work-related difficulty/conflict or family stress, etc.;
• Advise chiefs/heads of section(s) as necessary, or upon request, with the aim of improving the atmosphere in their section and resolving problems of a work-related or personal nature that adversely affect job performance and productivity;
• Perform critical incident stress management interventions, either individually or in a group format, whenever and wherever required; work closely with Security Section, Administration, and Medical Section, inter alia, in coordinating and providing critical incident stress management;
• Collaborate with medical team to address physical complaints that might be stress-related; assure, in conjunction with the medical team, a continuum of services (referral, short-term supportive intervention) to those staff members suffering from serious diseases or illnesses;
• Provide training sessions on crisis and stress management, resilience, conflict resolution and other topics as required;
• Monitor environmental factors that could lead to stress with particular focus on stress related to critical incidents including emergency and crisis situations;
• Liaise with national mental health professionals and other psychosocial resources;
• Be available at all times 24/7 to provide support to mission personnel as necessary;
• Perform other related duties as may be required by the Chief of Staff Counseling Unit.