Major factors influencing the negative community response during early stages of the Ebola response were high levels of fear coupled with messaging-based communication approaches telling communities to seek early diagnosis and treatment when services were not actually yet in place. This led to significant distrust between communities and health care providers. People were still carrying out unsafe burials in the community and turning to traditional healers well into the epidemic, rather than turning to health professionals and seeking Ebola-specific services.
WHO, through a collaborative process with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) in Sierra Leone, national and international partners and multi-disciplinary experts, piloted an initiative to support the rebuilding of trust between response staff and the affected communities.
The one-day training consisted of a technical video on how to understand and manage fear and an experientially-based learning programme to prepare response staff to engage with quarantined households, their neighbours, and to manage what could often
be difficult conversations and hostile reactions.
An evaluation has shown that the training contributed to changing relationships between response staff and communities in a positive way. It also helped bridge the differences in risk
perception and risk management, between response staff and Ebola-affected families and communities.
Understanding and Managing Fear - Training for humanitarian workers in emergencies