Director, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Implementation Strategy, Research and Partnerships

Description

Position Title: Director, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Implementation Strategy, Research and Partnerships
Reports To: PIH Co-Director, Mental Health Program: Training, Educational and Strategic Partnerships

Location: Employees in this role can work from our Boston, MA office, remotely within the U.S. or hybrid of these two options.

Employment Type: Full Time, 40 hours/week, salaried, exempt (40% travel to PIH global sites)

Grant Funding: Time-bound role, grant funded until 2029

Position Overview
The Partners In Health (PIH) model of mental health care, integrating both psychosocial interventions and clinical mental health interventions  embedded within public sector health care delivery systems in contexts of limited resources  requires effective engagement and mobilization of human resources along a continuum from lay health workers to specialists. A fundamental aspect of this work includes the provision of training, education, mentorship, supervision, and implementation support of locally led quality improvement endeavors in mental health care delivery.

The Director of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Implementation Strategy, Research and Partnerships will be responsible for providing senior-level expertise in the implementation of MHPSS programming and implementation science methods for global mental health delivery programs across all ten PIH global sites. The person will be experienced in both the implementation of psychosocial interventions strategies in global settings as well as their evaluation, including analytics, to improve care quality. The person will be conversant with global best practices in this subject area. This requires a strong background in understanding individual and group evidence-based interventions, methods in translation and contextual adaptation, experience in providing expert-level training and implementation support to community-based mental health providers, expertise in evaluation, and a robust understanding of effective global mental health partnerships.

Responsibilities:

The Director will:

• Accompany PIH care delivery sites and staff in developing their capacity to implement evidence-based quality psychosocial interventions in mental health care delivery;
  • Integrate best practices in competency-based assessment and training approaches, competency-based feedback, and in applying mental health curriculum and guidance development, to support optimal implementation of services;
  • Provide training on and directly conduct cost analyses and cost effectiveness analyses of programming (these three functions comprise implementation strategy);
  • Apply most appropriate research design and methods including statistical and research tools consistent with best practices in implementation science;
  • Advance the academic mission of the program’s work, to support dissemination of lessons learned to the global community and establish the PIH mental health program as a thought leader and driver of innovation in mental health delivery globally (these two functions comprise research);
  • Effectively liaise and partner with primary academic partners at Harvard Medical School and the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda in concert with a new 10-year Paul Farmer Collaborative between these institutions, as well as secondary academic partners at other institutions; and
  • Support the creation and implementation of innovative and interdisciplinary fundraising plans for mental health, including support for major grant initiatives for site-based mental health teams (these two functions comprise partnerships).

    Qualifications

    • A PhD, PsyD, DrPH, or other relevant doctoral degree in public health, psychology, global mental health, or a related field;
    • At least 10 years of experience in mental health-related work and 5 years of experience in global mental health-related work;
    • Demonstrated ability in designing, implementing, overseeing and evaluating mental health interventions across diverse contexts, including training, supervision, program delivery, monitoring and evaluation, and focused research design and evaluation, supported by a record of peer-reviewed academic articles in the field;
    • Exemplary interpersonal skills and an ability to collaborate effectively with culturally diverse staff across departments and countries;
    • Passion for