April 7-9, 2022 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Abstract: Sense-making and building resilience during the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in Liberia
Background When major diseases communities, various reasons are proffered for how communities go through the outbreak. The 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in some West African countries is one such major outbreak that raised grave concerns around the world. Yet, the communities that were affected continue to exist in spite of the projected possible decimation. For a disease that spread through personal and social contact, how did community members build resilience and overcome the outbreak? Purpose and significance Using insights from resilience scholarship, the study explores the resilience process building of community members in Liberia during and after the Ebola outbreak in 2013-2016. The study makes some contributions to scholarship. First this study suggests that during disease outbreaks with high mortality, people build resilience by developing and using protective mechanisms and community resources to preserve lives and livelihoods. Secondly, I show that community members make negotiations about life and health decisions that are relevant for their lived experiences but may be at odds with biomedical interventions. Literature The study draws on scholarship on resilience (Communication Theory of Resilience [CTR] Buzzanell 2010; 2018) and community resilience (Houston, 2018) to analyze the narratives and discourses of community members in the Mambah Kabah of Liberia about how they engaged, experienced and overcame the physical, psychological and cultural challenges of the Ebola outbreak to create resilience. Methods This exploratory study adopted a qualitative approach with three semi-structured focus group discussions of 10 participants each (total of 30 participants) and 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews with community leaders and influencers in the Mamba Kabah district in the Margibi County of Liberia. Purposive sampling was used in selecting respondents from communities and towns within Dolotown health catchment area and the Unification Town health catchment area. Findings The study found among other things that community members went through a process of disbelief to denial to defense and protection and equilibrium at different points during the outbreak. Individuals were at different points of this process and communication and community support systems were critical to helping them move through the phases to achieve the new equilibrium.