Operation USA completed a Crisis Intervention Project with UCLA Medical School Post Traumatic Stress experts and the two teams of therapists from the Association of Play Therapists for 10 days to train mental health personnel and work with children in Sri Lanka.  Follow-up training trips have also been made. We deployed 17 professionals on this project.

Working in camps in the Northern, Eastern and Southern regions of Sri Lanka, Operation USA’s field team conducted immediate needs assessments through interviews with IDPs and local NGOs to decide the most efficient way to facilitate mental health training programs specifically designed to deal with child trauma. We met with local government and NGO officials to identify the areas of most need that had not received mental health training. In response to the generally unequal distribution of aid in the country, our goal was to fill in the gaps. We had three groups of five play therapists working in the North, East and South. Working with local NGO consortia, we connected with school officials who gathered groups of teachers –preschool and elementary level – to attend three-day training sessions.

Mental health is often overlooked during the acute phase of a disaster when immediate material items are more urgently needed. We found that even in a country with almost no history in psychological research, talk therapy, counseling or other psychosocial programs, in the wake of this disaster everyone saw the need for mental health professionals and appreciated the training and information.