UK Sri Lanka Trauma Group

After enduring the civil war conflict for over 30 years and the devastations of the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami, the repercussions on the mental health of the population are still emerging. Despite the high level of mental health need in the Sri Lankan population, there is a shortage of trained mental health professionals. This deficit is exacerbated by geographical inequity, with the majority of professionals located in urban settings. Through Samutthana, the UKSLTG volunteers work all over the country to promote mental health awareness, skills training and policy development as well as peace building and conflict resolution. We take both a top-down and bottom-up approach in terms of our training model whereby we train skilled mental health professionals as well as grassroots community-based organisations. Over the past two decades the UKSLTG and Samutthana have provided support to many Sri Lankan organisations through the training of over 10,000 frontline workers including: Mental Health Professionals (Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists) as well as Social Workers, Teachers, Religious Leads, NGO Workers and Volunteers.