Graduate Assistantships: Mental Health Program

Under the leadership of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, a long-standing champion for the rights of people with mental illnesses, the Carter Center's Mental Health Program works to promote awareness about mental health issues, inform public policy, achieve equity for mental health care comparable to other health care, and reduce stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses. The Mental Health Program is seeking a graduate assistant (GA) to support activities across the program, including primarily efforts under the Global Behavioral Health (GBH) pillar. The GA may also support efforts in Public Policy (PP), and the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism (RCJF).

Project Scope:

The GBH team focuses on behavioral health systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries. In over 15 years of work in Liberia, we have partnered with numerous stakeholders to build and promote sustainable, quality, and accessible behavioral health services. Our support has focused on developing a sustainable behavioral health workforce, strengthening laws and policies, enhancing social cohesion, and elevating the voices of those with lived experience. Over time, the Program has leveraged a stronger and growing mental health system in Liberia to drive integration of mental health and other global health and development priorities, including communicable diseases, primary health care, and peacebuilding. Now, the Program is growing its footprint to new contexts, including Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Uganda.

As the portfolio of work grows, the GBH team is seeking a GA to assist the team by supporting project management and operational research in key workstreams. For instance, the program is focusing on efforts to integrate mental health services with systems of care for neglected tropical diseases and tuberculosis. The GA might support global research and scoping work, project-specific program management, data analysis, evaluation of programming, and grant-writing for new initiatives. Together with the supervisor, the GA may identify possibilities to leverage the assistantship for thesis needs and authorship opportunities.

Responsibilities Include:

• Draft reports, memos, presentations, and project materials (e.g., Communications efforts), literature reviews, and article summations on relevant topics related to programmatic research and implementation for internal and external audiences
  Contribute to the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation frameworks and evaluation of program activities
• Carry out descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using project data
• Assist with data management, including data policies for access, data storage options and dissemination of analysis, cleaning data, and identifying opportunities for improved knowledge management and sharing
• Advance various other specific projects assigned as opportunities arise based on programmatic needs and the applicant’s interests.

Project Benchmarks:

• By the end of the first month, the graduate assistant will have an introduction to current measures and methods across the program and design a work plan for the academic year in close communication with staff that helps meet desired program and learning objectives.
• By the end of 3-4 months, the graduate assistant, in collaboration with staff, will have identified a possible programmatic, knowledge, or research/evaluation product to be developed out of MHP efforts and a strategy to produce the deliverable by the end of the assistantship.
• By the end of the 9-month period, the graduate assistant will have in-depth experience with global behavioral health and familiarity with the Mental Health Program portfolio of work, including cross-departmental collaborations

Project Deliverables:

• Project progress reports and status updates
• Data analysis outputs
• Literature summations, presentations, reviews, and manuscript drafting where relevant
• End of project presentation and summary report that includes recommendations for future programming and/or research

Qualifications:

• Currently enrolled graduate or doctoral student
• Strong writing and communication skills
• Coursework/fieldwork in relevant topics, with familiarity in quantitative research methods, program evaluation, and data analysis preferred
• A 20-hour per week commitment for a period of 9-12 months