HIV LINKAGE OFFICER – The CoSMO project funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The CoSMO project funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and CENC, the African Women’s Association (AWA) located in Yaoundé Etoa Meki launches a call for the recruitment of an HIV Linkage Officer

Title: HIV Linkage Officer

Supervised by: Project Coordinator

Duration: 07 months renewable

Location: Yaounde

Job summary :

The HIV Linkage must ensure the implementation of community HIV care and support activities and liaise with health facilities for HIV treatment in the CoSMO project at the partner organization level. The Care, Support & Liaison (SAL) officer will collaborate with the Care and Treatment senior officer to deploy and implement an integrated and holistic community response to HIV/AIDS, intensify case detection, ensure liaison of children, adolescents and caregivers living with HIV, retention in care and treatment; help case managers provide evidence-based adherence support through home visits, facilitate access to viral load testing, monitor pregnant and lactating mothers and HIV-exposed children and ensure documentation of all HIV-related data (HIV status, antiretroviral treatment regimens, viral load results, etc.).

Main responsibilities:

Provide supportive supervision and mentoring to social workers primarily in the areas of HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS care and community support for project participants affected by HIV.
Implement strategies designed to strengthen links between community care activities and health facilities providing HIV care and treatment to ensure a continuum of care.
Develop and maintain good collaboration with health facilities and clinical partners to promote bidirectional clinic-community referrals.
Provide support in HIV prevention awareness, community mobilization for HIV counseling and testing, HIV care and support, PMTCT and early infant diagnosis (EID), systems improvement orientation and counter-reference between communities and health facilities.
Support the implementation of evidence-based interventions to address HIV risk behaviors, HIV transmission and gender-based violence with a focus on adolescent girls and young women caregivers.

Specific responsibilities:

Support social workers in linking project participants to HIV prevention and care services in project communities.
Work with other project staff to ensure compliance with technical standards, best practices and KIDSS guidelines for all project HIV prevention care and support activities.
Promote strategies to strengthen two-way links toward an improved continuum of care for children and caregivers living with HIV and better documentation of HIV-related data.
Support capacity building of OVC implementing partner staff in HIV counseling and testing, PMTCT and early infant diagnosis (EID), by improving referral and counter-referral systems between communities and health facilities.
Support follow-up and retention to improve case finding in exposed infants.
Work with partner staff to scale up use of the HIV risk screening tool to identify adolescent children and caregivers at risk of HIV and prioritize them for HIV testing in communities and trainings sanitary facilities.
Support the development and implementation of effective strategies for linking to care and treatment of project participants living with HIV.
Support urgent connection (within 72 hours) of survivors of gender-based violence (sexual violence) to health facilities for post-rape care.
Use appropriate tools to monitor program performance (evaluation and service delivery, link with health training, initiation of antiretroviral treatment, monitoring of patient compliance/retention, suppression of viral load, etc.).
Strengthen referrals to increase ATV use and retention in care among children, adolescents and caregivers.
Work closely with district health authorities, health facilities (treatment centers/units), PEPFAR clinical partners and other stakeholders to identify and capitalize on leverage points and improve clinical two-way guidance -community for HIV prevention, care and support services.
Participate in all relevant training recommended by the project to gain more knowledge in the field of HIV.
Organize knowledge sharing sessions with stakeholders and other staff from relevant partners.
Ensure appropriate documentation of HIV services in project participant files and enter them into COLMIS.
Facilitate the participation of project participants living with HIV in peer support group activities in health facilities and the community to improve adherence and retention in care and treatment.
Respond to requests from the zone team and produce monthly reports
Supervise activities in health facilities
Ensure that the OVER_OFFER/ENROLL is updated in the covered health facilities
Ensure validation of medical care at the organizational level on a weekly basis

Typical background, experience and requirements :

Education and experience

Masters/Bachelor’s degree or relevant health degree plus a minimum of one year of technical experience with community-level HIV prevention, care and support programs
Experience in supporting HIV testing and counseling programs in health facilities, mobile units and community outreach services
Knowledge of Government of Cameroon guidelines for PMTCT, HIV care and treatment (pediatric and adult) and experience working with HIV programs
Knowledge of OVC programming and principles.

Personal skills

Critical thinking and strong, logical reasoning skills.
Observation, active listening and analysis skills with the ability to make sound judgments.
Good relationship management skills and ability to work closely with health facility staff, local partner staff and community members.
Ability to motivate peers to achieve common goals.
Training and facilitation skills.
Attention to detail, accuracy and timeliness of assigned responsibilities.
Proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented.

Desired required language: Fluency in French, fluency in English.

COMPOSITION OF THE FILE