UK Psychiatrists and Psychologists create Resource Centre for Sri Lankan Tsunami survivors in Colombo - Press Release 12th May 2006

At least one million people in Sri Lanka were directly affected by the December 2004 tsunami, and the World Health Organization’s estimation of the number of people who could require treatment for stress related disorders has topped 160,000. The severe shortage of practising mental health professionals in the country has led a group of UK psychiatrists and psychologists to establish a resource centre in Sri Lanka in a move to improve the quality of care delivered to tsunami survivors and increase the capacity of local mental health provision.

Samutthana, the King’s College London Centre for Trauma, Resettlement and Mental Health in Sri Lanka, has been created by volunteers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London in collaboration with the UK-Sri Lanka Trauma Group and Forum for Research and Development Sri Lanka. Stuart Bell, Chief Executive of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, has made a significant contribution to the post tsunami effort, and helped to establish this centre by providing the initial resources. The Centre has also received the backing of the World Health Organization, as well as significant financial support from CAFOD (the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development).

The Centre’s volunteers will offer supervision and professional support for individuals and organisations working with people affected by the Tsunami. Through training, lobbying and research, they hope to improve Sri Lanka’s disaster preparedness and its future ability to respond to psychosocial needs in the future.

Martin Prince, Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry at King’s College London stated, ‘The need to support mental health professionals and partners in addressing trauma and resettlement is of utmost importance at this time. We hope that in it’s first year, this Centre will provide training to over 1,000 people in local community, Government and non-governmental organisations and benefit more than 25,000 people affected by the tsunami.’

Currently, there are fewer than 38 practising psychiatrists in Sri Lanka, with no universities in the country offering training in mental health services. However, more than 230 of the psychiatrists practising in the UK are of Sri Lankan origin. Indeed, many of the psychiatrists and psychologists involved in this project were born in Sri Lanka, and others have dedicated a large amount of time to visiting the country and offering their professional services on a voluntary basis. In this way, the volunteers possess the advantage of a thorough understanding of the language and culture of Sri Lanka, and so can sensitively design programmes of training and care that will work for the local population.

Dr Shamil Wanigaratne, Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, noted that “we have been training Sri Lankan mental health professionals and volunteers in trauma related work for the past ten years, but have not been able to support and monitor continuous development of their skills due to the lack of an infrastructure for supervision. Having this resource centre will enable us to establish such an infrastructure as well as utilise new technology such as video conferencing.”

The primary headquarters for Samutthana is located in the in Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo, with satellite branches based in Jaffna, Batticola and Hambanthota. The Centre will be managed by local people, with expertise provided by volunteers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College and the UK Sri Lanka Trauma Group.

CAFOD have provided £160,000 to the project, covering a substantial proportion of the costs of developing and running the Centres in the first year. The project has also been supported by the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, which has allowed their staff extensive paid leave to spend their time volunteering in Sri Lanka. As part of the project, King’s College London is funding three PhD studentships for Sri Lankan students, who will monitor and evaluate trauma and resettlement. These will be provided at King’s in partnership with universities in Sri Lanka.

Samutthana will be formally opened by the Sri Lankan Minister of Health, Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva MP, on Friday the 26th of May. Mr de Silva will also participate in the inaugural conference “ Learning from Trauma Past and Present” workshop entitles “Learning from survivors” which will be held on the 26th of May in Colombo.

Details of the seminar programme and other activities of the Centre can be obtained from the website www.uksrilankatrauma.org.uk

Notes for Editors

The UK Sri Lanka Trauma Group (UKSLTG) is a registered charity in the UK whose membership and executive include internationally recognised experts in the trauma field including psychologists, child psychiatrists and adult psychiatrists. UKSLTG is largely made up of Sri Lankan experts based in at the Institute of Psychiatry South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and other NHS Trusts as well as British experts from the IOP and other institutions such as the University of East London who have a long history of involvement in Sri Lanka. They have an established track record of working in Sri Lanka over the last nine years, with traumatised populations, initially in the context of that island’s civil conflict.

The Institute of Psychiatry is part of King’s College London and closely affiliated to the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. The Institute is a world-renowned centre for treatment, research and training in psychiatry and mental health. The organisation is involved in pioneering new and improved ways of understanding and treating mental illness and brain disease. Its wide-ranging field of work includes depression, eating disorders, brain imaging, genetics and psychosis.

The Institute was one of only two organisations in the field of psychiatry, which received a six star rating in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise conducted by the Higher Education Funding Council of England. The exercise, which is conducted every five years, enables the funding councils to distribute public funds for research selectively on the basis of quality.

King's College London is one of the two oldest and largest colleges of the University of London with over 13,800 undergraduate students and nearly 5,700 postgraduates in nine schools of study. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities.

The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency. King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of £100 million, and has an annual turnover of more than £348 million. In 2004 the College was once again awarded an AA- financial credit rating from Standard & Poor's.

CAFOD

is the international aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, sharing in the Church’s task of transforming the world to reflect the Kingdom of God, through solidarity with the poor and action for justice.

CAFOD’s mission is to promote human development and social justice in witness to Christian faith and Gospel values. To fulfil this mission CAFOD raises funds from within the Catholic community and beyond so that it can:

• work alongside people in need to reduce poverty and bring about sustainable    change through development and humanitarian programmes.

• Increase understanding of the causes of poverty and injustice and encourage the    Catholic community to embrace values, attitudes and lifestyles that are rooted in    the gospel.

• Challenge governments and international bodies to adopt policies that promote    social justice and end poverty. This is done both directly and by rallying the    Catholic community.

Forum for Research and Development is an academic institution and a network of Sri Lankan and overseas academics and institutes, dedicated to developing an overarching research culture in Sri Lanka

Top