Psychiatrist, Head of Mental Health Services At Village Health Works

Context:

Village Health Works (VHW) is a 501c3 corporation. It is a social justice organization founded on the belief that health equity is not a commodity but a right. Founded in partnership with the communities we currently serve, VHW’s mission is to provide the neediest high quality, compassionate health care and education based on critical thinking in a dignified environment. VHW’s holistic approach integrates clinical services with education, food security, economic development, environmental protection, music and the arts. In the context of where we currently work, this is the only way we can sustainably end extreme, multigenerational scarcity in a way that uplifts and engages communities with dignity and in their own context. We believe that the lack of access to quality healthcare and education is the biggest threat to development and world peace.

Currently VHW operates in a wide array of clinical and community programs in a catchment area of over 200,000 people within the provinces of Rumonge and Bururi, though its doors are open for every patient regardless of where that patient is coming from. Our first clinic provides services to over 51,000 outpatient consultations per year. Since 2007 until summer 2023, our 60-bed inpatient wards have been providing basic adult and pediatric non-operative inpatient services including treatment of malnutrition, mental health, chronic and acute diseases and uncomplicated obstetrical deliveries. These services have been administered by our staff of generalist physicians under the supervision of our current Medical Director.

Village Health Works has embarked on a plan to expand our clinical services to provide comprehensive quality medical care and training. To achieve this goal, VHW has constructed and officially opened an 85,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art teaching hospital with several departments including surgery, obstetrics, intensive care, pediatrics and neonatology, emergency room, inpatient psychiatry unit, pathology lab, medical education, and research center. To provide excellent patient care and training we must expand the scope and skills of our healthcare workforce through training, teaching and research, rigorous development and implementation of systems and structures, policies and procedures that are framed by high quality norms and international standards.

Our core values are as follows:

• Every member of VHW’s team must value the dignity inherent in each individual, aspire to excellence in all we do, proceed with boldness and perseverance.
• Compassion and justice must be at the heart of our organization.
• To accomplish the mission of our organization we all must be accountable to each other and to our community.

For more information, please visit: www.villagehealthworks.org

Position Overview

The Head of Mental Health Services will have responsibilities that span clinical, educational and administrative domains. S/he will be responsible for serving our community by ensuring the delivery of high-quality evidence-based psychiatric and psychological care while promoting a clinical culture of service excellence, teamwork, patient safety and continuous improvement. The ideal candidate will lead by example as well as by formal teaching of staff and trainees and developing on-going training opportunities for the mental health team and the generalist medical staff.

The Head of Mental Health Services will be engaged in work that spans the spectrum of clinical mental health care including diagnosis and stabilization of new onset psychotic disorders, affective illness, post-traumatic stress disorders and epilepsy. S/he will be instrumental in designing, implementing and overseeing appropriate short term stabilization programs for unstable patients, outpatient psychopharmacology management as well as individual and family supportive psychotherapy both in the clinics and in the community. Finally, the Head of Psychiatry will support and oversee research opportunities in mental health and support the team’s work in outreach and sensitization of the community to mental illness and treatment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Domain- Clinical Care

The Head of Mental Health Services will

– Be responsible for providing face to face consultations to psychiatric patients in the inpatient stabilization wards, outpatient clinics and in the community and supervising the work done by clinical psychologists and psychiatric nurses on the team. S/he will also consult as indicated on complex patients under care by the team.

– Ensure that all mental health patients are evaluated and medically cleared prior to admission to the psychiatric wards

-Review the clinical formulary and make appropriate adjustments as indicated by the patient population and epidemiology.

-Ensure that clinical care plans are effectively and clearly communicated to the care team, patient and family

-Collaborate within multidisciplinary teams for patient care.

-Analyze the results of examinations made in Bujumbura by psychiatric and epileptic patients for adjustment of medications and management protocol

Domain – Clinical Staff Management

The Head of Mental Health Services will

-coordinate coverage of all patients requiring oversight and treatment 24/7 which will include creation, and modification as needed, of on call schedules and appropriate coordination with clinicians from other specialties

–regularly review and evaluate mental health staff with written evaluations and oral feedback

–recruit and hire mental health staff as needed

–develop and execute a strategic plan for delivering and expanding the range of mental health services

Domain – Documentation

The Head of Mental Health Services will

–ensure appropriate and complete record keeping and treatment plans for outpatients,

including those seen in the community, as well as patients in the stabilization units

–ensure the documentation of patient consent for mental health evaluations and interventions

–work with IT and EMR teams to facilitate accurate and timely documentation

-Ensure daily clinical documentation of care for all patients under department care and review for quality.

Domain – Quality

The Head of Mental Health Services will

-Ensure regular morbidity and mortality review for mental health services.

– Monitor indicators of quality for mental health services on a regular basis.

Domain- Administration and Management

The Head of Mental Health Services will

-Engage with clinical leadership to achieve strategic goals.

-Engage with the Finance team to create annual budget requests

-Engage with finance and procurement for all mental health related capital purchases.

-Monitor utilization of psychiatric medications to ensure adequate supplies and reduce medication stock-outs

-Monitor utilization of psychiatric medications to ensure appropriate supply levels for consistent patient care.

-Engage with Development team to aid in fund raising when necessary.

-Engage with Services to provide high quality sterilization and infection control standards.

-Engage with Biomedical Engineering team to ensure functionality of necessary equipment.

Domain -Professional Development/Education and Training

The Head of Mental Health Services will

-Provide clinical supervision and mentorship to the psychologists and nurses on staff

-Assist training team in evaluating educational gaps and design training to address learning

needs for members of the mental health team and general medical staff

– Execute a curriculum (created or adapted) covering topics in mental health which includes basic science and the evaluation and application of up to date guidelines and research for staff and medical students

-Engage in continual and ongoing maintenance of skills and certifications.

-Work with the mental health team to support community sensitization and community engagement.

– Participate in research activities in support of clinical work

-Engage with medical education for rotating medical students and other trainees

Education / Qualifications

– Medical Doctor with Diploma/Residency training in Psychiatry

Minimum 5 years documented experience in the management of patients with mental disorders

– Additional training or proven experience in the management of patients with epilepsy

-Academic experience in preparing lectures and providing mentorship to clinical professionals and community/lay health workers

-Empathy, compassion, dedication, hard work, exceptional organizational skills, openness to challenge, good problem solver

– Excellent written and verbal communication skills

– Fluent in Kirundi, French, English and Swahili

-Knowledge of conflict prevention and management.

-Knowledge of the computer tools (Word, Excel, Power point).

-Demonstrated experience in organizational management and workforce supervision