Background
COVID-19 epidemic outbroke in Viet Nam in February of 2020. In March 2020, people-killing COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. The virus has both short-term and far-reaching implications for children, families and the national economy at its core – trade, supply chains, businesses, jobs. The Government of Viet Nam has implemented a series of emergency measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and transmission in communities including school, business and border closures, isolation/quarantine, travel restriction, workplace measures etc. It is reported that related industries such as tourism, transportation, retail, services (restaurants…), manufacturing, and supply chain are likely to have some negative impacts in the first quarter of 2020 especially, with effects lingering throughout the year. The pandemic is also hitting household livelihood and (intra-) household welfare. In many cases, social distancing, including the closure of schools and , is one of the first action taken by countries. Families with children, particularly those who are living in dysfunctioning and poor families, vulnerable and living in remote or affected areas are facing new vulnerability and at risk of falling into poverty or income insecurity due to job loss or livelihoods instability. Both short and long-term impact of the pandemic will create enormous impact on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children and their parents and increase risks to violence against children.
UNICEF has been supporting MOLISA and MOET in development and implementation of relevant interventions in addressing the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing needs of children and their parents to help children overcome their psychosocial distress. That includes development of appropriate communication materials and programmes targeting children who are subject to home confinement due to school closure and their parents on knowledge and skills to support children. In addition, various training programmes on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for teachers, social workers, helpline staff and child protection officers also need to be developed and implemented to help improve capacity of these cadres in order for them to better support children to overcome mental health and psychosocial problems.
Purpose & Objectives
The national consultant is to design relevant communication materials and training programmes on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for children, parents, teachers, staff of the National Helpline, social workers and child protection officers in responding to Covid-19 outbreak. In addition, the consultant also support the development and delivery of training programmes for teachers and social workers in schools. Those developed material can be used online and offline.
Specific objectives:
- Develop two sets of communication materials on MHPSS in responding to Covid-19, one for children at home and another one for parents so that they can support their children;
- Develop one training programme on MHPSS to children affected by Covid-19 for social workers, MOLISA’s hotline/helpline staff, child protection officers. This includes development of a handbook for participants and a training curriculum.
- Develop one training programme on MHPSS to children for social welfare officers working in residential care and staff working in reformatory schools;
- Develop one training programme on MHPSS on children for teachers and social workers in schools;
- Facilitate three Training of Trainers courses: a) one for teachers; b) one for social workers and child protection officers; c) one for staff working in residential care and reformatory schools. The training could be conducted face to face or virtually, depending on the situation of COVID-19 in the next months.