Psychometric properties of two mental health screening tools in southeast Liberia: The Liberian Distress Screener and Patient Health Questionnaire.

Evidence suggests that locally developed and/or adapted screening tools for mental ill-health can have higher validity than directly translated tools developed in other settings. We administered the locally developed Liberian Distress Screener (LDS) and the Liberian-adapted Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9L) to a random sample of 142 outpatients at a regional hospital in Maryland County, Liberia. In the LDS, seven items demonstrated poor model fit and were excluded, resulting in an 11-item screener (LDS-11).

Recovering from the Ebola crisis: 'Social Reconnection Groups' in a rural Liberian community.

In 2014/2015, International Medical Corps (IMC) operated two Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) in Liberia and three in Sierra Leone when the Ebola virus disease epidemic killed over 11,000 people across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. As Ebola cases declined in Liberia, IMC Psychosocial teams transitioned to working in communities highly affected by the epidemic. This article describes IMC's experience with developing and implementing a community-based mental health and psychosocial group intervention in a rural, severely affected Liberian town - Mawah - where 46 out of approximately 800 community members were infected, 39 of whom died.

"My Heart Die in Me": Idioms of Distress and the Development of a Screening Tool for Mental Suffering in Southeast Liberia.

The integration of culturally salient idioms of distress into mental healthcare delivery is essential for effective screening, diagnosis, and treatment. This study systematically explored idioms, explanatory models, and conceptualizations in Maryland County, Liberia to develop a culturally-resonant screening tool for mental distress. We employed a sequential mixed-methods process of: (1) free-lists and semi-structured interviews (n = 20); patient chart reviews (n = 315); (2) pile-sort exercises, (n = 31); and (3) confirmatory focus group discussions (FGDs); (n = 3) from June to December 2017.