The WPA is funding in 2010 a series of train-the-trainers workshops to promote the integration of mental health care into primary care in Sri Lanka. During the course of the year, 155 professionals will be trained. The training courses will be delivered at the Institute of Psychiatry of Colombo and the University of Ceylon, Kandy in June 2010, and in Jaffna, Matara and Ampara later in the year by Drs. Rachel Jenkins, Jayan Mendis and Sherva Cooray.
The training toolkit being used is adapted for Sri Lanka from a toolkit first devised to train primary care workers in Kenya, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, UK. It consists of slides, role-plays, discussions, WPA videos, and adapted WHO primary care guidelines. This toolkit has subsequently been adapted for and used in Malawi, Iraq abd Pakistan. The WPA also funded its use in Nigeria in 2009.
The training was piloted on 26 medical officers of mental health and 5 psychiatrists in Sri Lanka in November 2009 and the materials were further tailored for Sri Lanka on the basis of that experience. The pilot training was funded by the Cooray Family Trust.