COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
The government through the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) provide free drugs to
patients with mental health problems. Drugs such as Carbamazepine, Ethosuximide,
Phenobarbital, Phenytoinsodium, SodiumValproate, Amitriptyline, Chlorpromazine, Diazepam,
Carbidopa and Levodopa, as well as generic drugs of a similar kind are all available. SPC are
able to procure all Western drugs. Sometimes there were difficulties obtaining some narcotic
items in India, and also Indian drugs were occasionally sub-standard, but SPC also deal with
European suppliers, and often obtained specific drugs from the UK, France, Germany or
Switzerland. For very specific individual cases, a search would be conducted over the internet
to locate the required items and the request to purchase them would be assessed by the
Ministry of Health. If the costs could not be met by the government, an individual had the option
to contribute towards them.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was first recognised in Sri Lanka in patients affected by
the 2004 tsunami. Many of the psychiatrists and support staff in Sri Lanka have received
training in Australia and the UK for the treatment of the disorder. A Consultant Psychiatrist from
NIMH said that many patients often sought ayurvedic or traditional treatment for the illness long
before approaching public hospitals, adding that this often resulted in patients then suffering
from psychosis.
Three organisations below provide the following services:
� Sahanaya – The National Council for Mental Health – two centres in Borella and Gorakana
providing walk-in clinics and day care centres – www.sahanaya.org/index.
� Sri Lanka Sumithrayo – based in Colombo but with 13 branches across the country
providing counsellors and trained volunteers - www.srilankasumithrayo.org
� Basic Needs – capacity building of communities, partner organisations and primary health
care workers to help to the stigma surrounding mental health -
http://www.basicneeds.org/srilanka/index.asp
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Second Secretary (Migration)
This letter has been compiled by staff of the British High Commission in Colombo
entirely from information obtained from the source indicated. The letter does not reflect
the opinions of the author, or any policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The
author has compiled this letter in response to a request from UKBA and further enquiries
regarding its contents should be directed to UKBA.
242 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.