The development and identification of appropriate child development instruments and screening procedures has taken place within the context of Sri Lanka's primary healthcare programme. Initiated seven years ago, the programmes primary objective was to promote child development through a... Read more
Psychosocial
This document is based upon a study conducted in eastern Sri Lanka by a small team of researchers over the nine month period between April 2003 and January 2004. The project was intended to pilot a range of participatory... Read more
Background: From January to May, 2009, a population of 300,000 in the Vanni, northern Sri Lanka underwent multiple displacements, deaths, injuries, deprivation of water, food, medical care and other basic needs caught between the shelling and bombings of the... Read more
Natural disasters cause immense suffering among affected communities. Most occur in developing countries, which have fewer resources to respond to the resulting traumas and difficulties. As a consequence, most survivors have to rely on their own coping resources and... Read more
In December 2004 a tsunami destroyed the whole coastal line, killing more than 10,000 people in the district of Ampara alone and left many injured and homeless. But even before 2004 the whole population had faced 20 years of... Read more
Few psychosocial and mental health care systems have been reported for children affected by political violence in low and middle income settings and there is a paucity of research-supported recommendations. This paper describes a field tested multi-layered psychosocial care... Read more
In this paper the possibilities are explored for integrating Western individualistic models of assessment and intervention in clinical psychology and psychotherapy into work in areas of armed conflict where the culture is predominantly collectivistic. Sri Lanka is used as... Read more
The paper discusses one psychosocial intervention, a children\'s play activity programme, which has been run in a number of refugee camps within Sri Lanka since 1992 to the present. It is a multi-level intervention which works with children, their... Read more
Objective: To study the impact of combat related stress and psychological management of combatants Design: Assessment of Military Hospital Psychiatric Unit attendees using a structured questionnaire. Materials & Methods: Soldiers coming for treatment at the Psychiatric Unit Military Hospital... Read more
Even if predicted, disasters may not be completely averted due to reasons beyond human control. There is always likely to be a degree of loss, human as well as material. Therefore, the correct strategy is to limit the damage... Read more
