Volunteer Opportunity: Help Build OnCall — A Real-Time Assistant for Community Mental Health Counselors

By Sarah Tyers @ 2025-10-23T19:58 (+3)

Hi There,

I'm currently volunteering with Finemind, a nonprofit building cost-effective, scalable mental health systems in Uganda. We train and support community-based peer counselors to deliver structured, evidence-based psychological care using WHO-endorsed tools like Problem Management Plus (PM+) and Interpersonal Counseling (IPC).

We are working on  developing OnCall, a chat-based assistant that provides real-time, context-aware guidance to peer counselors during sessions. Built with Open Chat Studio by Dimagi, OnCall gives counselors immediate, practical answers to questions like:
• “How do I start an IPC session?”
• “Which assessment tool should I use today?”
• “What if my client is grieving a recent loss?”

By reinforcing training at the point of care, OnCall ensures that every counselor can deliver compassionate, high-quality support—even in remote or low-resource settings.

The thing is, we need passionate, capable volunteers to help us get the project of the ground! We are looking for a couple folks who could give 5-10hrs a week over for the next 3-4 months. You will be collaborating with our team in Uganda, the UK, and US.

You'll be working alongside:

• Pavel Reppo (Co-founder & Executive Director): Leads Finemind’s strategy, partnerships, and growth. Pavel co-built the organization alongside Ugandan colleagues from its earliest, community-driven beginnings.
• David Oyet (Co-founder, Uganda): Leads local implementation and government partnerships, ensuring Finemind’s integration into Uganda’s public health system.
• Uganda Field Team: Peer counselors, integration leads, data officers, and a psychiatric nurse who anchor the work in local expertise and lived experience.
• Sarah Tyers (Volunteer): A volunteer working to support operational needs, including  coordination for the OnCall project. Sarah brings a background in leadership, program development, and community building, and is excited to help bring this innovative tool to life.

Finemind has been supported by Dovetail Impact Foundation, Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation, and the Charles Engelhard Foundation, and collaborates with the Happier Lives Institute, a leading EA-aligned research organization evaluating the cost-effectiveness of our stepped-care model. Our work follows Effective Altruism principles—rigorous impact measurement, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.

What you’ll do:
• Configure OnCall in Open Chat Studio.
• Structure and upload Finemind’s counseling manuals and supervision guides.
• Design conversational flows and ensure responses are accurate, context-aware, and user-friendly.
• Test and iterate with our Uganda-based field team.

You’ll be a great fit if you have:
• Experience with conversational AI, chatbot design, or natural language platforms.
• Familiarity with OpenAI, Open Chat Studio, or similar tools (ideal but not required).
• Skill in prompt design, response logic, and user experience for mobile interfaces.
• Awareness of guardrail design to ensure the assistant references only approved content.
• An interest in global health, mental health, or technology for social good.

What You’ll Gain

• Hands-on experience applying AI in real-world global-health settings.
• Collaboration with an EA-aligned, mission-driven international team.
• The satisfaction of seeing your work improve access to care for underserved communities.
• Recognition as a technical contributor to a high-impact mental-health innovation.

Future Directions

We’re also exploring how AI could simulate a client in distress, allowing counselors to practice in a safe, realistic environment. Tools like Notebook LLM or Sunbird’s multilingual models (supporting 31 Ugandan languages) could make this possible—enabling decentralized supervision and continuous learning. If you’d be interested in joining us in this journey, we would be super excited to have you along!

How to Get Involved

If this sounds like you (or someone you know), please reach out to Sarah Tyers at sarah@afinemind.org with a short note about your background and why you’re interested.

Learn more about us at afinemind.org.