Building resilience and improving wellbeing in Sierra Leone using the community resiliency model post Ebola

Abstract

Complex emergencies and disasters often result in a cascade of human suffering, which expose survivors to multiple traumatic situations and have a sizeable mental health impact. If available, most trauma treatments concentrate on addressing the cognitive or psychological aspects of trauma, which lacks the biological component of trauma that is central to human resiliency and wellness. The Community Resiliency Model (CRM) was created to increase mental health resources in underserved communities with complex trauma histories by teaching individuals to regulate their nervous system. Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries has a traumatic history of a 15-year civil war, frequent floods, and the 2014 Ebola outbreak. In the context of a lack of resources and ever-present stigma, many experience negative mental health with an estimated treatment gap of 98%. Our study set out to determine the immediate and six months effectiveness of a CRM intervention for Sierra Leonean community members in the aftermath of Ebola. Results indicated significant improved depression, anxiety, PTSD symptoms, and resiliency post intervention, which were mostly maintained 6-months later. These findings suggest CRM may be an effective way to address mental health issues that arise after disasters in low resourced settings.

Keywords:

• Resilience
• trauma
• intervention
• PTSD
• anxiety

Acknowledgments

This intervention was in part supported by Adventist Health International and the Loma Linda University, School of Behavioral Health. The authors wish to thank the Sierra Leone Waterloo Hospital and local community for inviting us.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Kimberly Freeman, upon reasonable request.