Professional Case Manager at Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative (AHNi)

Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative (AHNi) is a non-profit organization that promotes socio-economic development by supporting global health and economic initiatives in Nigeria. It was established as indigenous organizational, registered in 2009 with its headquarter in Abuja, and presence in the four geopolitical regions of Nigeria.  It aims to provide technical assistance to the government and people of Nigeria in the implementation of public health and development programs.

The Global Fund Grant Cycle (GC7) is to ensure a coordinated and intensive effort to scale up the prevention, identification, and treatment of HIV in both general and key populations in Anambra state. The focus will be on facility and community-based approaches to reach epidemic control, and in addition, ensure improvement in the coverage of pregnant women on ART as well as target KP and AGYW programs.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Professional Case Manager

Location: Taraba
Contract Type: Adhoc Services
Duration: 9 months with possibility of extension (based on availability of funds)
No of Adhoc: 15
Commencement Date: 2nd January 2024
Supervisor: ART Coordinator/Facility-In-Charge. Site Backstop (Technical officers at the state level)
Job Category: Adhoc

Background

• The Accelerating the Control of HIV Epidemic in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe & Taraba States (ACE-1) Project implemented by AHNi, and the consortium partners is a robust, sustainability-focused, high-impact, evidence-based HIV/AIDS intervention funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It aims at fast-tracking the attainment of UNAIDS 95:95:95 targets and achieving epidemic control in the focus states.
• Effective October 1, 2024, AHNi-ACE-1 took over the HIV implementation for the general population in Taraba State.
• AHNi verified and retained the Adhoc personnel transitioned from RISE for the first 3months to ensure adequate HR availability to continue service provision in all facilities.  
• AHNi-ACE-1 in collaboration with the Taraba State Government seeks to engage Adhoc personnel to fill the following roles across the 29 Supported Health Facilities in Taraba.

Overall Responsibilities

• The Professional Case Manager shall be based in the health facility and serve as a point of contact for the panel of unstable clients (newly initiated, unsuppressed, paediatrics, Welcome to Care (WTC), etc.)  accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) services in the facility.
• S/he will work with the facility personnel to ensure optimal user experience for this panel of clients receiving treatment in the facility.
• S/he will be responsible for the provision of treatment literacy, attendance to clients’ inquiries/complaints, facilitating access to all services for which the client is eligible, and be responsible for the overall well-being of the clients, even after the client can sustain self-care.
• S/he shall be knowledgeable in contextual and cultural issues relevant to communication and relationship management.
• S/he will be expected to maintain a database of clients and maintain optimal contact with assigned clients through various communication channels, including telephones, emails, social media platforms, and scheduled home visits.

Specific Roles and Responsibilities
The services of the Professional Case Manager will include but not limited to the following:

Adherence Counselling/Enhance Adherence Counselling:

• Provide Adherence Counselling/Enhanced Adherence Counselling to clients to enable them to overcome challenges associated with living with HIV/AIDS and ensure better treatment outcomes for clients especially for the priority groups stated below.

Priority Group:

• Paediatrics
• Adults under the following subgroups
• Tx New Clients
• Unsuppressed Clients
• Interrupted Previously (Active Restart)
• Clients with Adverse drug reactions
• Clients with advanced HIV Disease

In particular, the professional case manager should:

• Build and maintain formidable healthcare worker-client relationships to reinforce clients’ trust in and loyalty to the healthcare system.
• Ensure every client’s health needs, requirements, and expectations are thoroughly realized; and that they maintain optimal levels of ART adherence.
• Maintain an appointment schedule for each client, containing dates of the next visit and purpose of the visit, such as the date of the next laboratory test and nature of the test, date of the next drug pick-up at the pharmacy, etc.
• Maintain a database of clients in cohort groups, based on common factors such as dates of enrolment, dates of appointment, etc., and manage and maintain up-to-date reports on clients’ progress towards attaining medication adherence, treatment retention and viral suppression.
• Record details of client inquiries, comments, and complaints/compliments, as well as appropriate actions taken; and record eventual feedback/satisfaction levels obtained. Referral to other service delivery units for appropriate care should also be appropriately documented in relevant data capture tools.
• Help the clients develop an understanding of ART treatment and its challenges.
• Provide the client with ongoing support and facilitate linkage to both facility and community-based support groups to enable the client to adhere to ART. Provide routine check-in for clients on MMD refills.
• Address concerns/questions arising from the client’s treatment with empathy.

Pediatric Care:

• Link all children to OTZ groups
• Refer all children 0-17 years to OVC partners with documentation on the referral register and forms.
• Ensures service optimization- IPT, VL, disclosure counselling, regimen optimization, etc.
• Implement strategies to ensure zero missed appointments, zero missed doses and VL undetectable for all ALHIV in care.
• Counsel caregivers on Adherence and closely monitor Adherence.

Client Tracking:

• Generate a list of clients daily for appointment reminders using LAMIS and/or appointment dairy
• Remind clients of appointment dates; ensure immediate tracking of clients after a missed clinic/drug pickup appointment. Ensure reasons for missed appointments are identified by returning clients and working with the client to identify suitable strategies to address the identified cause.
• Conduct routine mortality audit to identify / document causes of client death
• Provide time-to-time adherence checks to clients on a differentiated model (MMD3&6)
• Generate line-list and track clients who interrupted treatment (IIT) within the reporting period
• Ensure documentation of tracking attempts in client tracking and termination forms, tracking register, and LAMIS.
• Promote a culture of appointment keeping by clients.

Viral Load:

• Ensure clients are well informed on the importance of viral load assessment and know when they are due for viral load assessment
• Work with the Lab Support Officer to facilitate sample collection for clients eligible for VL
• Support clients to maintain undetectable VL levels (<50 copies/ml)
• Support Viremia clinic and clients with unsuppressed viral load (>=1000 copies per ml) to undergo enhanced adherence counselling

TB/HIV:

• Ensure all HIV clients are screened for TB at each clinic visit.
• Ensure all presumptive cases are referred to DOTS, and documented on the referral register, and TB presumptive register
• Ensure all co-infected clients are started on TB treatment as well as ART
• Ensures all eligible clients for TB preventive therapy receive Isoniazid
• Follow up with all clients on TPT till completion or definite outcome and update the IPT Monitoring Form and IPT register with client outcome.

Recruitments

• BNS / RN / RM / CHO / MLS or Health-related qualifications with at least two (2) years post-qualification experience in managing comprehensive TB and HIV programs in resource-constrained settings
• Experience in a similar position is an added advantage
• S/he must reside within the LGA where s/he is applying to work
• Retired Nurses willing to serve are encouraged to apply
• Candidate MUST NOT be an employee of the State or Nigerian Government (Any violation of this condition will attract outright dismissal from the Adhoc services with sanctions)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Up-to-date knowledge about HIV interventions and programming at facility and community levels.
• Knowledge about the operating environment i.e. Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Taraba States
• Knowledge of the Nigerian clinical setting, including government and non-government settings.
• Sensitivity to cultural differences and understanding of the social, political, and ethical issues surrounding HIV infections.
• Ability to work well with others and to develop and maintain compatibility among project staff, subcontractors, consultants, and recipients of assistance.
• Ability to manage tight deadlines and deliver high volumes of work with minimal supervision.
• The ability to communicate in the local dialect will be an added advantage.
• Well-developed computer skills.

Application Closing Date
9th December, 2024.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should forward an Application and CV as a single MS Word document to: [email protected] using the Job Title, Location and Facility indicated as the subject of the mail.

Note

• AHNi shall shortlist the candidates that meet the requirements and invite them to be interviewed by AHNi & GoN representatives
• Only applications sent electronically (i.e., by e-mail) with the job title, location and facility indicated as the subject of the mail will be considered and only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
• AHNi is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
• Disclaimer: AHNi does not charge candidates a fee for a test or interview.