Sri Lanka is a country with a serious mental health problem,
grown worse by the tsunami of December 2004 and decades of violent civil
conflict. The country has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Yet,
mental health services are not adequately funded in the healthcare system. The
country has only 56 psychiatrists, mostly based in Colombo and other urban
areas. Most people have to make long, stressful and expensive journeys to
access mental health services.
The reality is that it is the poor who suffer the most from
mental illness because of their inability to access both information and
services. The stigma attached to mental illness is also most evident among the
poor. Without treatment, a mentally ill person can also become functionally
disabled − they most often require a full-time care-giver − usually a female
relative − who forgoes her own job. There is a drop in income, and a sharp rise
in expenditure. Mental illness contributes to poverty and is made worse by
poverty.
Another critical problem is the country’s remarkably low
awareness on mental health issues. A large number of people do not know that
they have mental health problems and delays in identification worsen their
conditions.
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