Job Description
The Treatment Supporter is responsible for providing client support including counselling on HIV prevention, care, and treatment, while creating a conducive environment which will aid clients’ free expression of feelings.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
- Conduct structured treatment literacy sessions in health facility designated areas, to create demand for HIV testing, ART initiation, adherence, viral load, retention, cervical cancer screening and other services.
- Organize community mobilization/sensitization meetings.
- Conduct screening for depression among clients accessing HIV services and refer clients with depression to psychosocial counsellors for advanced support.
- Conduct screening for eligibility to other HIV related services e.g., cervical cancer screening, PrEP, family planning, etc.
- Assist with patient referrals, escorting HIV+ clients from HIV testing services (HTS) to ART clinic, explaining why the referral was made and what services will be given at the referral point.
- Provide individual and group pre- ART initiation counselling and support to clients who are starting/restarting ART.
- Work with HDA to generate and collect the list of HIV+ clients including infants and children not linked to care after 7 days and make necessary follow ups.
- Demonstrate and implement welcome back to all returning to care.
- Align and create respective treatment buddies, in conjunction with other care and treatment supporters.
- Organize Master cards and make pre- appointment phone call reminders.
- Book clients for their next appointment.
- In liaison with data clerks, generate a list of missed appointment and document them in the follow up/ tracing register.
- Make phone call follow-ups and home tracing for missed appointment, defaulters, clients with high viral load, positive EID and others, according to respective SOPs.
- Document properly in all retention data tools on follow up reasons and results outcomes, etc.
- Facilitate referral of patients and caregivers to community-based care and support group services including OVC.
- Assess client risk and identify clients in need of psychosocial counselling during ART clinic
- Provide comprehensive individualized counselling to clients with high and moderate risk and follow up in care, based on protocol and SOPs.
- Provide intensive adherence counselling (IAC) to clients with unsuppressed viral load as guided in adherence SOP and national guidelines
- Identify and refer clients who need advanced individualized counselling services to psychosocial counsellors.
- Identify and provide support to clients who require sero -status disclosure to their partners, family members and children.
- Collaborate with community-based partners providing psychosocial support to ART clients to refer clients from community to facility and vice -versa.
- Support Psychosocial Support Groups (PSSG) and support back to care PSSG activities.
- Participate in all scheduled retention-based meetings and submit their reports, while bringing all relevant registers
- Document all sessions conducted at various service delivery points in appropriate reporting tools.
- From time to time liaise with the Health Surveillance Assistant responsible for his/her catchment area on issues related to improving service delivery and retention.
- Participate in all required trainings.
Required Qualification & Experience
- Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) with credits in Science Subjects and English.
- Certified HIV Testing Services providers (HTC Counsellors) will have added advantage
- Ability to effectively present information in both written and oral forms. Experience in working with People Living with HIV
- Ability to ride and maintain pushbikes for client tracing and facility visits.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
- Fluency in local languages and English is an advantage.
About the Organization
Right to Care Malawi is at the vanguard in supporting and delivering prevention, care, and treatment services for HIV and associated diseases. We work with government and communities to find pioneering solutions to build and strengthening public healthcare.
We embrace a strong entrepreneurial culture and focuses on innovation and the use of technology to enhance services, address skills shortages, and deliver quality healthcare outcomes. Our areas of expertise include HIV care and treatment, medical male circumcision, and cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment.
