Anna's Volunteer Mental Health Placement in Sri Lanka

I have been fortunate enough to be offered a place on a mental health placement in Sri Lanka for 4 weeks from the 6th of November!

This placement is coordinated by Sri Lanka Volunteers (SLV) in partnership with Samutthàna, the King’s College London Center for Trauma, Displacement and Mental Health.

After 25 years of civil war and the tsunami in 2004, a very large proportion of Sri Lanka’s population suffer from severe trauma. I will be spending most of my time running therapeutic activities at an 800 bed psychiatric hospital in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka.

Through working with Samutthàna, I will also have the opportunity to be invited on mental health field trips to see how mental health patients who live remotely get access to treatment and take part in workshops led by local mental health workers. I’ll be gaining real-life, hands-on work experience and living like a local in a Sri Lankan family homestay along with 6-15 other volunteers.

With only one mental health professional for every 120,000 people, the primary method of treatment is pharmacological. Beds in psychiatric hospitals are scarce and although the community often aims to provide some respite for families in need, the lack of formally qualified mental health professionals is apparent. As I volunteer I will be aiming to reduce surrounding stigma and bolster current resources. Working with local professionals we will be providing much needed stimulation and human contact to improve well-being.

From my experience implementing a 6 week physical activity intervention programme for mental health patients at Tauranga Hospital in the summer of 2015-6 I saw first hand the significant improvement therapeutic activities have on mental health outcomes. I am so excited to have the opportunity to be a part of a similar programme in Sri Lanka.

With my lifelong passion for travel and goal to ensure better mental health outcomes and more accessible mental health worldwide, this mental health placement is a great fit for me! It offers me a unique and important opportunity to consolidate what I have already learned from my psychology degree and gain valuable experience to prepare me for the clinical health psychology programme in 2018. I would really love your support and help to fundraise!

Here’s a link to the volunteering website if you would like more information regarding the organisation and their projects www.slvolunteers.com.

**For every $50 I raise I will be donating $10 to Alex Reese's Cricket Live Foundation**

Alex, from Christchurch, started the Cricket Live Foundation in Sri Lanka, Columbo. The foundation uses cricket as a medium for developing the life skills of Sri Lanka and India's underprivileged children. I thought this would be an awesome opportunity to support both causes!

The link to his foundation is here https://www.cricketlivefoundation.org. Check out the video of his story!