BACKGROUND
Health care workers and their patients, vehicles and facilities should be protected from violence. When enhancing preparedness measures to mitigate and/or cope with violence in health care settings, interventions should take into consideration the security risks and environment of each facility, ideally with guiding material/tools that have proven efficacy and may be culturally adapted.
The ICRC through its Health Care in Danger (HCiD) Initiative seeks to collate existing tools and make them available (when copyrights allow so) to the widest audience possible, with the goal of encouraging implementation of preparedness measures that may keep health care secure. Preparedness measures to mitigate violence in health care settings include:
· Institutional policies such as number of visitor/attendant’s regulations, restriction of visiting hours, staffing regulations, no-weapon policies, and zero-tolerance policies on violence, among others;
· health staff training on violence management, reporting of violence mechanisms, and coping mechanisms or psychosocial support;
· facility security improvement mechanisms such as incident reporting systems, facility security risk assessments, video surveillance systems and alarms;
· mechanisms to address consequences of incidents such as psychosocial support for victims ‘health care worker victims of violence at the workplace;
· addressing the needs of patients by including installation of information booths in health settings, displaying waiting times to the public and/or providing information on where to seek care and triage systems to the public.
OVERALL GOAL OF CONSULTANCY AND SPECIFIC TASKS
There are currently gaps in the cluster of practical tools and other resources that could steer and enhance the implementation of measures and inform decision makers more broadly, creating challenges for health care personnel and health authorities who wish to address such questions in the workplace.
Amongst a set of existing tools, an important gap has been noted related to improving the capacity of health care systems to prevent and cope with violence. Therefore, a consultancy is proposed with the following objectives:
Carry out a global scanning of tools that could be employed around:
a) Community-engagement within health care settings including service design elements;
b) Security risk assessments for health care facilities and/or services;
c) Develop of contingency plans in health care settings;
d) Management of security incidents in health care settings.
Present a short analysis of the found tools, ranking them in terms of evaluated relevance and efficacy, when evidence is available.
The aim of the scanning is not to provide an exhaustive set of tools, rather identify the most relevant and/or effective, where there is a track record of usage, and focus on those that can be found
completely free-of-charge for immediate use. If the case, the absence or reduced availability of tools, must be discussed in the final report. The consultant will, before the scanning, discuss the pre-identified set of tools and define the methodology for the scan with the HCiD team at the ICRC.
Deliverables:
A final report presenting results of scanning including: all the found tools in annex (integrally presented), analysis of identified tools (see above) and comments on availability or lack thereof in the domains specified for the search. Feedback provided from the draft must be incorporated into the final report; the findings of which must be presented.
Timeframe:
Period Activity
By December 5 2020 Selection of consultant, discussion of pre-identified tools and methodology w/ HCiD team
December 2020 - January 2021 Rolling-out of scanning activities
15 February 2021 Presentation of draft report
February 2021 Comments from HCiD team, and finalizing of report
QUALIFICATIONS OR SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED/FINANCIAL PROPOSALS
Suggested selection criteria
· Solid research background and education including an advanced degree in a relevant health-based discipline
· Excellent writing skills in English.
· Ability to work independently.
· Knowledge of health systems and policies, including experience in facilities
· Experience in and knowledge of practices around preventing and responding to/coping with violence in health care settings.
· Knowledge of ICRC approach and the Health Care in Danger Initiatives work
· Ability to capture and translate complex themes into a cogent analysis.
· Familiarity with tools and guidance materials in the area of safety and security for healthcare, and/or of the organizations working in the field.
Duration and application modalities:
· The financial proposal shall specify the fees requested for the tasks based on the deliverables included in the ToR*
· The consultancy service is required for around 6 weeks (around 30 days), starting 5 December 2020 over a 70 day period
· The service is home-based with occasional meetings to be organized online with ICRC staff in Geneva
How to apply:
The applicant should submit a detailed action and research plan including the proposed methodology including her/his CV
Please contact: gva_hcid@icrc.org to send your proposition and for any further questions. The TOR* will be shared on request.