Liberia Interpersonal Communication and Counseling Curriculum

To be effective and trusted, health providers must show empathy and the ability to effectively communicate with their clients. Technical competence plays a large role in delivering high-quality care; however, additional factors identified as affecting the quality of care delivered by health providers include their communication skills, values, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, perceptions of their role, social and workplace norms, structural context, and level of supervision.

Breakthrough ACTION worked with a multidisciplinary team from the Liberia Ministry of Health and national and international development partners to develop an interpersonal communication and counseling curriculum. The curriculum focuses on building skills related to communication, empathy, and compassion to support service providers in delivering more effective and responsive care. Building a service provider’s communication and counseling skills leads to a better understanding of a client’s perspective, improved relationships between providers and clients, and, ultimately, a greater sense of trust and confidence in the health system.

The curriculum is designed for health providers who are in contact with clients at health facilities in Liberia. The manual teaches counseling, communication, and motivation skills using hands-on practices such as problem-solving, post-training coaching and mentorship, self-reflection, peer review, and visual reminders. These approaches aim to build health provider skills that promote empathy for their clients to boost health outcomes by improving client-provider interaction, client experience, and quality of care.

Curriculum Resources

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