By: Carolyn Moore and Lesley-Anne Long
Photo credit: Moses Khanu

Since the launch of the first free Training Health Workers for Ebola webinar series in October 2014, we have seen hundreds of members of the global health community come together to share vital, timely information to save lives and prevent the spread of the disease. This real-time and archived delivery of information has been critical to the continued response. We are excited to be working with partners, IntraHealth International, Ebola Alert, and TechChange, to continue growing this community as the response continues and countries begin to rebuild from the outbreak.

A team of organizations, led by mPowering Frontline Health Workers and IntraHealth International, are coming together to share tools and information on how to support health workers responding to and rebuilding from the Ebola crisis.

Please join us in a three-part webinar series beginning April 1.

Health workers in West Africa have been responding to Ebola since 2013, and, according to the latest WHO situation report, the pace of the outbreak is beginning to decline. This calls for relief and celebration. However, this is far from final for those who have been affected by Ebola.

The virus has left indelible marks on their lives, and their stories are many and severe:

The Ebola situation is once more improving in terms of infection rate, but the socio-economic needs are enormous.” (Moses Khanu, Pastor, Sierra Leone)

What comes next for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three most affected countries? And how can countries nearby and in the region plan for future potentially deadly outbreaks?

Health workers remain at the center of community response and support. At the same time, the governments and international organizations that support health workers are seeking answers for how they can restore health services in West Africa, strengthen health systems, and prepare for future health emergencies.

What’s next for Ebola affected countries?
Many organizations are working closely with all actors across the health sector. In our second series of Training Health Workers for Ebola webinars in April, we will have a group of colleagues who have been working in the affected countries talking about lessons learned and planning for rebuilding and strengthening health systems.

We invite you to join the discussion in the webinars.

Reviewing lessons learned, and looking ahead
These webinars will focus on tools and strategies that health workers, as well as the governments and organizations that support them, can use to continue the response, protect their communities and help rebuild health systems. Free training and information resources are concurrently being posted in the Ebola Resource Center http://www.hrhebolaresources.org/

Please join us in the webinars! Here are the details:

Webinar Schedule:
April 1: Working with Youth, Volunteers, and Vulnerable Populations
April 8: Community Mobilization and Preparedness Planning
April 15: Effective Use of Data

All live sessions will be held from 10.00 – 11.00am EDT.

These webinars will bring together more than 15 international health organizations, led by mPowering Frontline Health Workers and IntraHealth International.

Registration and more information are available here. The webinars are open to all, and will build upon the presentations and discussion in the first Training Health Workers for Ebola series.

All of the webinars will be available for viewing at www.techchange.org after the air dates.

The webinar series has been made possible by the generous support of the USAID-supported Health Communication Capacity Collaborative.

TechChange recently broadcasted the Training Health Workers for Ebola webinar series, with the sponsorship and webinar content of mPowering Frontline Health Workers and IntraHealth International. Over 550 participants from more than 70 countries have joined this webinar series so far, and more health workers around the world continue to sign up to view these recorded sessions for free.

The 4-part webinar series brought together voices from all over the world, both in terms of expert contributors and online viewers. We are inspired not only by the amount of people who participated online, but also by their contributions to the discussion on the information and tools necessary to support frontline health workers. Many commenters interacted with guest experts by asking important, timely questions, as well as by sharing information and resources on the work that they or their organizations are doing on the ground in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone to respond to the outbreak.

In case you missed the series, here’s a brief recap of each webinar:

In the first webinar, “Learning and Information Needs for Frontline Health Workers”, Dykki Settle (IntraHealth) and Sean Blaschke (UNICEF) discussed their work with the free SMS mobile communication system, mHero. Informed by the challenges faced by communities in Liberia, mHero was developed with the aim of investing in and strengthening tools that have already been implemented in Liberia to support the development and accessibility of health workforce information.

In the second webinar, “Health System Support for Frontline Health Workers”, Dr. Chandrakant Ruparelia (Jhpiego) shared key considerations for designing training programs for healthcare workers in areas affected by the Ebola outbreak. Additionally, Marion McNabb (Pathfinder International) pointed to the importance of leveraging existing training programs and mechanisms effectively in the Ebola response. Panelists from Digital Campus and Medical Aid Films also shared their experiences with using video for behavior change communications and health messaging.

In the third webinar, “Community Mobilization and Interactions with Clients”, Gillian McKay (GOAL) presented information about the social mobilization campaign that GOAL is implementing in Sierra Leone through two key innovations: uniformed services training emphasizing protection for officers involved in the Ebola response, and an Ebola survivor and champions media campaign to build trust and support within communities affected by Ebola. Additionally, Reverend Moses Khanu shared information on frontline efforts and the resources and support necessary in Sierra Leone.

In the fourth webinar, “Data to Support Effective Response and Case Management”, Jonathan Jackson (Dimagi) provided information on his organization’s effort to build a mobile tool for frontline health workers that can aid in contact tracing while collecting information for real-time data visualization and analysis. Additionally, Garrett Mehl (WHO) and Matt Berg (Ona) discussed their collaboration on the WHO data coordination platform to promote a harmonized Ebola response.

If your interest is piqued by any of these four webinars, you can watch each all recorded sessions in their entirety for free when you register using this link.

With each webinar, you will also find the discussion among online participants in the comments section. You will see that many participants shared details about their work and experiences, as well as initiatives that are emerging or already in place in the Ebola response. Where possible, we have also included the presentation slides and resources shared by presenters during each webinar.

As mentioned during each webinar, you can find additional resources and interact with experts on the Ebola Resources for Health Workers site.

If you’re interested in learning more on the role of technology in the Ebola response, join our online courses in mHealth and Tech Tools & Skills for Emergency Management.

 

Frontline health workers in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are responding to the largest Ebola outbreak in history. To protect themselves and their communities, health workers responding to Ebola need clear, reliable, and timely information on how to detect the disease, prevent its spread, and care for patients.

To respond to this crisis, mPowering Frontline Health Workers and IntraHealth International approached TechChange to deliver a free online webinar series on “Training Health Workers for Ebola—Protection, Detection, and Response”. In these webinars, more than 15 international and in-country health organizations will share information with participants on how to support health workers responding to Ebola. The four one-hour webinars will air on October 21, 23, 28, and 30, each starting at 10:00 am EDT.

The webinars are open to all, and we welcome participation from as diverse an audience as possible. This includes Ministries of Health, health workers, community leaders, program implementers (in-country and international), policy makers, and others. Health professionals from over 15 countries have already signed up, and participants represent government, health care facilities, international NGOs, and civil society, and other sectors.

The presentations and discussions in the webinars will (1) describe how to leverage available resources to train, support, and communicate with frontline health workers and others involved in the direct Ebola response through mobile technology; (2) consider ways to connect implementers to resources, collaborators, and sources of information; and (3) explore how to improve opportunities to enable implementers and programmers to share efforts, collaborate, and avoid duplication.

Webinar schedule:
October 21: Learning and information needs for frontline health workers
October 23: Health system support for frontline health workers
October 28: Community mobilization and interactions with clients
October 30: Data to support effective response and case management

All live sessions will be held from 10.00-11.00am EDT. For those who cannot attend the webinar sessions live, all webinars will be recorded and available here after the air dates.

These webinars are being supported by a 4-week discussion in the Health Information for All (HIFA) forums and we invite you to join and add your views. In addition, IntraHealth and mPowering are launching an online Ebola Resource Center for participants and others to share messages, training content, guidance documents, and other information. This site will also be a place for programs to share information about their work and to connect to others for support, ideas and collaboration. The Ebola Resource Center will launch on October 21.

If you and/or your organization have content on Ebola that you would like to share in the Resource Center, please email Dave Potenziani at Intrahealth at dpotenziani [at] intrahealth [dot] org.

We look forward to meeting you in the webinars & invite you to participate in the conversations in the HIFA forum.

You can find the webinar page and registration information at https://www.techchange.org/live-events/training-health-workers-for-ebola/.

Please share this information on this webinar series information with anyone interested in responding to the Ebola outbreak.

Photo credit: BBC