Social Support Officer

VACANCY

JOB TITLE: Social Support Officer [1]

POSITION SUMMARY:

Full time position: 100% FTE
Duration of contract: 1 year (extension to be based on performance and availability of funds)
Location: Ho Chi Minh City

BACKGROUND:

This position will work for two sister-organizations who have registration in Viet Nam: Friends for International TB Relief (FIT) the Center for Development of Community Health Initiatives (CHI).

CHI is a locally registered research institution established according to Decision No 1074/Q?-LHHVH under Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA). The main activities of CHI focus on implementation of research by conducting pilot studies, operational research and clinical trials. CHI also conducts projects and development initiatives in the field of public health. The organization is currently collaborating with IRD VN and FIT VN to implement the Erase TB project funded by USAID. CHI’s role within this grant is to provide tiered packages of social support to vulnerable TB patients, including cash transfers, transport vouchers, Social Health Insurance enrollment and TB treatment adherence counselling. CHI then monitors this work by conducting research on TB treatment outcomes, catastrophic cost incurrence, quality of life and the impact of stigma on TB patients. Additionally, CHI is a sub-grantee the CDC Foundation and provides provides social support for MDR-TB patients while evaluating the impact of this support.

FIT VN is a registered non-profit organization working in the field of tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care, service delivery, research, technical assistance and advocacy. FIT is a young, dynamic and growing organization. FIT now has over 50 office-based staff working across five cities in Viet Nam. We work in close collaboration with Provincial and National TB Programs and other in-country partners to implement projects funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, the Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNITAID and Johnson & Johnson. We have also had multiple active research partnerships, including with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation in the Netherlands, and Ceres Nanosciences and SureAdhere Mobile Technology in the United States. FIT staff have supported the implementation of other TB programs in South and Southeast Asia, and represented Viet Nam at multiple regional and international forums on TB technical assistance. Finally, FIT was chosen to represent civil society organizations from Viet Nam at regional events and at multiple events in the lead up to and during the United Nations High Level Meeting on TB in New York City. For additional information please refer to our website: www.tbhelp.org [2]

The below is job description for the position of Social Support Officer:

For provision of social support:

• Follow procedures to receive cash from CHI’s finance team;
• Schedule delivery of social support;
• Develop training materials about this component of the project;
• Distribute materials and/or social support the patient’s home or the local District TB Unit;
• Provide treatment adherence counselling to patients

For Social Health Insurance (SHI) enrollment:

• Contact TB patients without health insurance and set appointments;
• Directly assist TB patients with enrollment onto SHI, including filling out paperwork for them and delivering insurance registration documents to the local People’s Committee/ SHI authorized agencies;
• Document completion of insurance enrollment.

For qualitative interviews:

• Have familiarity and experience with interview techniques;
• Follow all research protocols and SOPs;
• Obtain informed consent from participants;
• Assist with conducting focus group discussions, in depth interviews and key informant interviews;
• Distribute interview stipends to participants and complete all documentation of this process

For patient costing surveys:

• Learn the methodology of the patient costing surveys (PCS;
• Read about the methodology used for prior patient costing surveys and the calculation of catastrophic costs in Viet Nam and other countries;
• Conduct PCSs with TB patients, with properly signed informed consent
• Enter data from patient costing surveys into a WHO approved data collection tool

Other general tasks:

• Develop presentations about study implementation;
• Participate in summarizing research outputs and implementation experience for publication;
• Document implementation in detail
• Other activities requested by CHI management .

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REQUIREMENT:

• Comfortable interacting directly with TB patients in the early stages of their treatment
• Detail oriented
• Familiar with TB and/or HIV counselling
• Experience working with Microsoft Word and Excel
• Knowledge of electronic data entry is preferred
• Strong verbal and written communications skills required
• Ability to work well in a team setting
• Ability to balance numerous tasks simultaneously and meet tight deadlines
• Possesses a social science background with exposure to quality of life measurements, health economics and disability-adjusted life year (DALY) calculations is preferred but not required

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS:

• A bachelor’s degree in nursing, social work, preventative medicine, public health, statistics, economics or related discipline
• At least 2 years of experience implementing public health or poverty alleviation projects
• Willingness to travel throughout all districts in the city of employment
• Driver’s license and motorbike are required

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS:

• Fluency in Vietnamese
• Intermediate written and spoken English is required

APPLICATIONS SHOULD INCLUDE:

• A cover letter
• A detailed Curriculum Vitae
• At least two employment references (Name, Phone Number, Email Address)

SUBMIT AN APPLICATION:

• By e-mail to [email protected] [3] addressed to Rachel Forse
• Subject: ‘Social Support Officer- HCMC”
• No later than April 15, 2021

Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
Full benefits will be included in the compensation package.

All applications will be carefully considered, but only short-listed applicants will be interviewed.
If you do not hear from us within 21 days of the closing date, this means your application was unsuccessful.

CHI & FIT VN are equal opportunity employers.