What is Samutthana?

Samutthāna, is the King’s College London Resource Centre for Trauma, Displacement and Mental Health. Samutthāna means “renewal” or “regeneration” in Sanskrit. The project was established with the help of a grant from CAFOD by volunteers from the UK-Sri Lanka Trauma Group, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust in the UK. During its first year of existence the Forum for Research and Development, Mangrove Network and Basic Needs were its local partners. The main aim of Samutthāna is to provide training and support for organisations and individuals responding to trauma related psychosocial needs of tsunami survivors and others who has experienced trauma in Sri Lanka. Through its training programme Samutthāna aims to contribute to capacity building in Sri Lanka’s disaster preparedness and mental health care in general.

The Centre in Colombo has three regional outposts in Batticaloa in partnership with Mangrove Network, Hambantota and Jaffna in partnership with Shantiham and Annai Illum which aims to support the work of local NGO’s according to their needs. Samutthāna has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) who identifies the training needs of NGO’s engaged in psychosocial work, mental health, education and policy development and responds to this need by running training workshops and providing supervision and support.

The Samutthāna Centre in Colombo houses a resource library of books, CD’s and journals for mental health professionals, counsellors, doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers and others engaged in trauma, mental health and psychosocial work. Trough the provision of material resources and expert volunteers, the centre aims to help develop skills in mental health workers and continue to support, monitor and evaluate their work though supervision.