SriLankan Cares hopes for empowered future generation with the opening of Child Psychiatric Unit at LRH
View(s):The first state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary Child Psychiatric Unit in Sri Lanka, funded by SriLankan Cares, the community development arm of SriLankan Airlines, was declared open by First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa on Tuesday at the Lady Ridgeway Hospita (LRH), Colombo.
Making a commitment to the betterment of children, SriLankan Cares last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Health and the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) to upgrade and convert Ward Five of the LRH, to a Child Psychiatric facility.
SriLankan Airlines, Chairman, Mr. Nishantha Wickremasinghe said, “As the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines has been involved in a number of child and youth empowerment programmes to support many deserving children in their education and healthcare needs. I am pleased to be a part of this worthy cause and SriLankan will continue to care for and support the children through many empowerment initiatives.”
Though Sri Lanka’s national healthcare policy has a comprehensive strategy for infant and child physical healthcare, infant and child mental healthcare has not been equally prioritized. According to the statistics more than 20 per cent of the children are suffering from some sort of mental disorder /deficiency and are prone to suffer from suicidal tendencies and acute mental disorders in their adulthood. Lack of awareness among parents and general public on mental healthcare and the prevailing social stigmas have hampered the children’s chances to obtain timely treatment. On the other hand, Sri Lanka at present is facing a dearth of trained staff specialized in providing child psychiatric services as the training of these officials need to be provided through proper teaching establishments and training units attached to a national child psychiatric ward.
“Understanding the need to develop mental healthcare facilities for children, the project which was estimated at a cost around Rs. 9 million was funded by the SriLankan Cares Trust.
The renovated Unit consists of a Therapeutic Unit, Consultation Rooms, Observations Rooms and Resident Patients’ Ward. After handing over the facility to the hospital management, SriLankan Cares will continue to monitor its usage and progress,” the airline said in a media release.
The first phase of the project focussed on renovating and developing Ward Five in order to provide sufficient healthcare services to the patients.
The second phase focuses on implementing a development plan for national psychiatry services with awareness campaigns, media support and series of conferences, while contributing to the development of infrastructure and supporting research and training.