Liberia
Médecins Sans Frontières runs two programmes in Liberia, focusing on improving the provision of paediatric care, and services for people with epilepsy and mental health conditions.
Our activities in 2023
people received care for mental health disorders or epilepsy
children admitted to hospital
In the capital, Monrovia, we run a 25-bed paediatric unit in Barnesville general healthcare centre, a Ministry of Health facility that we began supporting in 2022. As well as managing an intensive care unit, a children’s ward and an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre, we provided staff supervision and training in 2023.
Elsewhere in Montserrado county, we continued to run a programme we set up in 2017 to respond to a nationwide lack of specialist staff, consultations, diagnosis, treatment and medication for people with mental health and neurological disorders, such as epilepsy. We have a team of neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists to help ensure we can provide the best possible care to patients.
In 2023, we expanded our support for epilepsy and mental health patients through five health facilities and through community-based care. We treated all patients on an outpatient basis, referring them to hospital when necessary. Our psychosocial workers and health volunteers also worked with patients’ families and communities to address the social stigma faced by people with neurological and mental health conditions, which can often lead to exclusion from schools or jobs.