Critical Incident Stress Management Unit (CISMU) personnel, including locally engaged National Stress Counsellors, are primarily responsible for stress management, resilience building and mental health support following critical incidents. They have specific responsibilities in emergency preparedness, emergency response and hostage incident management. Furthermore, they address and promote staff psychosocial wellbeing issues in coordination with the local UN doctor, the Regional Security Advisor, the HQ Medical Service Division, HR Officers, UN Counsellors from other UN agencies, funds and programmes and senior and line managers UN system wide. The National Stress Counsellor will be based in Suva, Fiji and provide services for staff and dependents located across the Fiji MCO (multi country office) which comprises of five countries in the Pacific region. While the current Security Level in the region is stable, the psychosocial well-being of staff is impacted by the isolation of the Pacific region, and lack of access to medical facilities, the ever-present threat of crime, unpredictable periods of civil unrest and concern about the potential onset of a natural disaster including regular cyclone events, flooding, and outbreak of diseases such as measles, dengue, and leptospirosis. Critical incident mental health support including the provision of psychological first aid may be required to address mental health emergencies including acute stress reactions, support victims of crime, provide support following medical emergencies and accidents, bereavements, family violence and other issues. In addition to the aforementioned difficulties, the current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many countries instituting drastic measures including lockdowns to reduce the spread of the virus and associated fatalities. COVID 19 crisis is considered as a protracted health emergency that has complex psycho-social repercussions for UN personnel in the short and the long term that require expert psychological interventions to mitigate adverse mental health consequences. Psychological reactions to COVID-19 such as panic, anxiety and denial are well known in populations across the world. Other important consequences of the pandemic across the globe include psychological and financial burden of the illness, death, drastic changes in the socio-cultural and behavioural patterns triggered by virus containment measures (i.e., movement restrictions / closed borders, people wearing masks, decrease of direct inter-personal contacts, changes in the cultural mourning and bereavement processes) that add on to the distress of families and exacerbate the crisis reactions. Domestic violence and intimate partner violence are also areas of concern. The UN Security Management Team in collaboration with the UN stress/staff counsellor, medical and security professionals in the headquarters and in country are required to adopt appropriate psychosocial strategies and interventions to assist UN personnel and their eligible family members. The TOR draws upon the experience and the outcomes of the activities of staff/stress counsellors in the pandemic outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola virus disease and influenza. Due to the above reasons and in line with the UN Duty of Care Framework, it is essential to continue the services of a part-time in-house stress counsellor for psychosocial support services for its personnel and dependents. The main role of the National Stress Counsellor will be to build a sustainable stress management system in the UN Offices operating in country and to improve critical incident stress management preparedness of the UN security management system (UNSMS).
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