Increasing mental health capacity in a post-conflict country through effective professional volunteer partnerships: A series of case studies with government agencies, local NGOs and the diaspora community

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on working in partnership with local practitioners and communities to strengthen local capacity building in the area of mental health and well-being in Sri Lanka. This paper will examine the context, organizing concepts, organizational processes, and the development of good working relationships and partnership building behind this work. Our involvement was based on requests which came to the authors as a result of their previous work in Sri Lanka over several decades. This work had been undertaken on behalf of the UK–Sri Lanka Trauma Group (UKSLTG), a UK-based charity which was set up in 1994, and of which the authors are founding members (www.uksrilankatrauma.org.uk). In the first section of the paper, contextual issues will be discussed. The second section of the paper provides details of the training undertaken on mental health promotion among young people in Sri Lanka for the Directorate of Mental Health. The third section of the paper reviews work undertaken with a major psycho-social/mental health organization on issues relating to writing and implementing an ethical code for mental health practitioners and briefly discusses some of the dilemmas associated with this.