By Regina Moore, Manager, External Relations & Communications
In celebration of World Health Worker Week, today’s “Photo of the Week” features a doctor in Monrovia, Liberia. One of only several dozen doctors in the country of more than four million people, Dr. Ireland was on the frontlines of the Ebola epidemic.
Dr. Phillip Ireland didn’t always expect to be a doctor.
Before going to medical school at 32 years old, he managed a rubber plantation, attended bible school, taught music and guitar at the YMCA and started a construction company building houses.
When Liberia’s second civil war hit, Dr. Ireland did what he calls “self studying” by avidly reading books. Following the war, he started at university. Soon after, he found his passion in medical school.
When the Ebola outbreak began in early 2014, Dr. Ireland was poised to serve his patients. He treated five or six people with Ebola until late July when he started experiencing symptoms of what he first thought was malaria. Just in case, he self-quarantined and checked himself into the Ebola treatment unit. Initially he was sent back home, but he soon became sicker and returned to the unit.
With uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea, Dr. Ireland could hear his colleagues nearby discussing the likelihood that he would die. But after 14 days in the Ebola treatment unit, Dr. Ireland was released.
He vividly remembers climbing over seven lifeless bodies as he left.
Dr. Ireland remained in isolation at home as he slowly recovered under the encouragement of his daughter. On December 1, 2014, he returned to work, where today he also trains clinical workers in the field on how to address Ebola.
One of the biggest challenges he sees today is the stigma associated with Ebola. Long after being declared Ebola-free, Dr. Ireland recalls friends only speaking to him from across the room.
Restoring the trust between communities and health centers is another major challenge. During the outbreak, this trust was broken as facilities struggled to respond to pressing health needs while communities were in the dark about what was going on.
Stories like those of Dr. Ireland are critical for changing these beliefs.
Today PSI works in close partnership with Mercy Corps, implementing their USAID-funded Ebola Community Action Platform (E-CAP) to spread accurate information and critical messages throughout the country.
PSI/Liberia makes these messages relevant and meaningful to everyday Liberians in ways that existing messages haven’t. Critical community insight and personal stories of Ebola survivors help frame the discourse, while PSI/Liberia and partners disseminate the strategically crafted messages through community radio, billboards and interactive in-person trainings.
Conducted by PSI-trained community mobilizers, interactive trainings allow community members to share their personal experiences, fears, biases and successes on Ebola-related topics with each other. They then learn basic information on the topics and identify methods to change or improve their communities. The participants are offered examples of ways to help their communities, including inviting an Ebola burial team member to speak to a large gathering, setting up a hand-washing station outside a mosque or simply saying hello to an Ebola survivor.
To date, PSI has trained 872 mobilizers to conduct trainings with communicators tasked with spreading the messages they learn to their peers. What has been key in this model is that it is an entirely community-led response. While doctors and clinicians play a critical role in addressing Ebola, the efforts of community members, like these communicators, are equally valiant. They were most frequently reported as being the “most trusted person” in their communities for Ebola-related information, and the participatory nature of the E-CAP model has made it widely-recognized in Ebola-affected regions.
While there is still a long way to go in reducing stigma and restoring the trust between health facilities and the people they serve, programs like this are making significant strides. Sharing the stories of survivors, like Dr. Ireland, is an important step in Liberia’s road to recovery.
“[I’m] striving to make Liberia a better place,” says Dr. Ireland.
Photo credit: Miguel Samper
