IT & Mental Health in Liberia: beyond "patient centered health care"Michael L. BestSam Nunn School of International AffairsSchool of Interactive ComputingGeorgia Institute of Technologymikeb@cc.gatech.edu

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

Meet Samuel W. Togbeh

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

Meet Samuel W. Togbeh

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

MOSES: Mobile Story Exchange System

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

Objective truth public and official Narrative truth personal storiesSocial truth dialogical and interactiveRestorative truth that which transforms

A Theory of Truths

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

Early Evaluation ResultsPre and Post General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE)After use of systems GSE increases 25% (two tailed paired t-test =2.96, p.59, n=42)

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

IT & Mental Health in Liberia: beyond "patient centered health care"Michael L. BestSam Nunn School of International AffairsSchool of Interactive ComputingGeorgia Institute of Technologymikeb@cc.gatech.edu

Carter Symposium -- Kolodner

**While we have mostly been speaking about IT & behavioral health in the USA I am going to change this and speak about the country of Liberia in West Africa. Most of you will be knowing that Liberian emerged recently out of 14 plus years of brutal civil conflict.

Here is a video created by Samuel Togbeh. He is speaking about his experiences during and after the Liberian civil war. Actually he is mostly just complaining about what he perceives as Liberians lack of ambition or drive.

A bit about Sam. Sam lives in Congo Town in an area near Monrovia the capital of the West African country of Liberia. He is an ex-combatant. He has some primary school education but ended before the 5th grade. After the war he attended an agricultural training program put on by Africa Development Aid as part of the Demobilization, Disarmament, Reconciliation and Reintegration (DDRR). He has never used a computer before. He's a goal keeper for an amputee soccer team.

*Sam is using a system we developed at Georgia Tech called MOSES - the Mobile Story Exchange System. It is an interactive digital media system for browsing and creating videos. It is designed to allow all Liberians to share their story and to listen to the stories of others.*Moses is part of a broader initiative we have exploring the role of rich digital media and ICTs in post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. In particular we have worked very closely with Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and also, I must add, with the Carter Center who has a very significant presence in Liberia.

*Some points that Dr. Kolodner have helped emphasize I believe is the important recognition that the emphasis must be on health and not health care. Person centered and not Patient centered. After all a patient is someone given medical treatment. But we do not generally see that as it relates to behavioral health issues in Liberia.

*As Liberia continues the massive job of rebuilding infrastructure following its extended 14-year civil war, psychosocial services have been almost non-existent even in the presence of demonstrably sever and endemic mental health challenges, including of course PTSD.

It has been widely reported that during the conflicts and for much of the DDRR process Liberia had only one mental health specialist in the country. Mental health challenges are particularly stigmatized in this society further exacerbating the problems. And DDRR efforts focused primarily on taking guns away without addressing ex-fighters' psycho-social challenges.

These three particular photos where all taken during the Disarmament processes. We are working off of theories of truth-telling as a restorative and healing process. For instance that developing a narrative truth, when individuals are able to share their own personal stories, is a powerful and critical aspect to post-conflict reconciliation. **So can we measure the impact of rich interactive digital media systems in having psychological impacts of the sort we all would wish? In other words, can IT be used as a direct therapeutic tool for post-conflict psychological healing and reconciliation. *