Via ReliefWeb, a report from IFRC: Psychosocial support during an outbreak of Ebola virus disease. Click through to download the PDF. The introduction:
The West African ebola epidemic is unlike anything we have seen before: The virus is spread over several different countries and is likely to spread to even more countries. The local health care systems are ill equipped to handle such a large scale outbreak. The disease is highly infectious and has a high mortality rate. Rumors, misconceptions and misinformation about the disease and how to prevent it are widespread.
Early on in the response to the disease, psychosocial support was identified as a key priority. Psychosocial support is not only vital to ensure the well‐being of the affected population, but also to counter‐act the threats to public health and safety that fear, stigmatization and misconception poses. Furthermore, everybody involved in the response, from expat staff, local staff and volunteers, are working under unusually stressful conditions.
This briefing note provides background knowledge on the psychosocial aspects related to ebola and suggests psychosocial support activities that can be implemented.
The target group is primarily psychosocial support delegates who work to support patients, affected communities AND staff and volunteers. At the same time, the messages in this briefing note can be helpful for all staff and volunteers who are in contact with patients, relatives and personally feel the strain of working and living during the epidemic.
The first part of this note deals with overall issues that any delegate, staff or volunteers responding to ebola is likely to encounter, while the second part contains information, recommendations and suggestions for providing psychosocial support.