New Psychiatric Ward in Vavuniya Opens
blog post from IMHO ~ International Medical Health Organization ~
With IMHO’s support, a new psychiatric ward in Vavuniya was officially opened and started functioning on April 25, 2009. This will be the acute inpatient care unit for four districts, namely Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Mannar. The unit will cater to about 650,000 people in this region. Earlier, local medical staff used to treat all persons with mental illnesses in the general medical ward, which was done with great difficulty. This new ward was funded by IMHO, along with a few private donors and the SLRC.
Though the need for this acute care unit for mental health services has existed in Vavuniya for long time, it has now become a reality. And the timing could not have been better with the recent influx of IDPs now in need of such critical services. Aalready about 120 new patients were registered in the clinic in the last few weeks. We expect this newly built ward will be a strong pillar in the mental health services of this region.
For anyone who was able to attend the 4th Annual IMHO Convention in Columbus, Ohio, you may remember Dr. Ganesan was there requesting extending the mental health facility to provide services to people in the Vanni region. Now the unit can begin helping those in need. It will be run by Dr. Suthakaran, a consultant psychiatrist. This building and other facilities have been extremely helpful in recent weeks in treating returning displaced people and providing space for INGOs, such as MSF, to operate in the Vanni.
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