Mental Health Counsellor

Mental Health Counsellors

We at Azim Premji Foundation are working to improve the health of the underserved communities living in urban settlements of Bengaluru.

Since 2022, we have started an integrated community health program across 5 clusters in Bengaluru. At each cluster, we have our Health Centre and a team of Community Health Workers managed by a local not-for-profit organisation.

• The Health Centres (with a team of doctors, nurses, a pharmacist and a lab technician) provide primary health services to the patients targeting a cluster of urban settlements in their neighborhood
• The Community Health Workers support the patients and the target community at large on health awareness and health education, community-level screening, follow-ups etc. in coordination with the Health Centre teams
• The team also collaborates with the local public health systems to facilitate the necessary services and benefits to the communities

As a counsellor, you will be responsible for the mental health wellbeing in a cluster of informal settlements. In this role, you will:

• Engage with community health workers in identification and screening of cases
• Provide need-based individual / group counseling to the screened patients
• Coordinate with the Health Centre team to provide appropriate medication and facilitate further referral to secondary / tertiary hospital
• Ensure appropriate follow up of cases as needed
• Directly engage with the community to organise social support groups with children, adolescents, youth, women and elderly

To succeed in this role, we expect you to have:

• An unwavering commitment to serve the communities, and the resilience to work full-time (6 days a week, Mon-Sat) in an evolving environment
• MSW (Counselling / Clinical Psychiatry) with 5-10 years of relevant work experience
• Fluency in Kannada and Hindi language is preferred, as is previous experience working in underserved communities
• Good interpersonal skills, diligence in documentation, ability to take initiatives and collaborate with the larger team
• Flexibility to travel to other clusters as required