Social Worker – Mental Health Programme

About the role

Anova Health Institute is recruiting a Social Worker to coordinate and deliver recovery-oriented psychosocial support for mental health service users and their families, across supported facility and community platforms. The role contributes to the programme's 95-95-95 mental health cascade by strengthening early identification, referral, access to counselling and social-work services, continuity of care, relapse prevention, functional recovery and economic reintegration.

Key responsibilities

• Coordinate the community component of the mental health programme and implement community-support activities aligned with the Phase 2 workplan and geographic targets.
• Train, mentor and coordinate community health workers with DoH Outreach Team Leaders and ward-based teams on mental health literacy, early identification, referral, adherence support, home visits and caregiver support.
• Provide psychosocial assessment, counselling, case management, family intervention, crisis support and advocacy, and map and maintain referral directories.
• Establish and monitor bidirectional referral and feedback arrangements with government, civil-society and community services.
• Coordinate facility-based psychosocial services and work with the Clinical Nurse Practitioner, Registered Counsellor and psychiatrist on multidisciplinary care plans and safeguarding escalations.
• Supervise and mentor Social Auxiliary Workers and counsellors, review psychosocial files and quality-assure support groups.
• Prepare weekly activity inputs, monthly reports and technical-assistance records, and work with the M&E Officer and Data Capturer on accurate data in REDCap.
• Report suspected abuse, neglect, discrimination or rights violations and advocate for the rights and dignity of service users.

Required profile

• Bachelor of Social Work degree from a recognised institution.
• Current registration and good standing with the South African Council for Social Service Professions.
• At least five years' post-registration experience as a Social Worker, including at least two years in mental health, psychosocial support, public health or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience in psychosocial assessment, counselling, case management, crisis intervention, safeguarding, advocacy and referral, and in supervising Social Auxiliary Workers or counsellors.
• Experience with DoH facilities, community health workers and multidisciplinary teams; rural or resource-constrained settings and community coordination are an advantage.
• Valid driver's licence and willingness to travel regularly across assigned facilities.

Required skills

• Strong counselling, assessment, crisis-response, advocacy, facilitation and group-work skills.
• Professional supervision, mentorship, stakeholder engagement and multidisciplinary collaboration.
• Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, and willingness to use REDCap.
• English and at least one local language commonly used in the programme communities is an advantage.