Building a Mental Health Infrastructure in Liberia

Two hundred fifty thousand: the estimated number of Liberians killed in an unthinkably horrific 14-year civil war.

One: the number of psychiatrists in Liberia when the war ended nearly a decade ago.

To say the west African country was left ill-equipped to heal the mental health wounds left by the conflict would be an understatement. But in 2004, that’s exactly where the country of about 4-million people found itself.

Reporter Jim Burress presents an audio slideshow of how the country is working to build a mental health infrastructure and the problems it faces in doing so.