In 1996, a group of expatriate Sri Lankan and British mental health professionals came together to find a practical way of helping Sri Lanka to respond to the continuing war related trauma in the country.

The Group agreed on the main objectives of:

• Raising awareness in Sri Lanka about the psychological sequelae of trauma.
• Helping professionals, individuals and groups in Sri Lanka in their efforts to minimise the psychological impact of trauma.
• To channel expertise and other resources available in the UK and the West to practically help in these efforts.
• To maximise the impact of efforts by individuals to help by planned co-ordination.

• One day conference and two days of training workshops in May 1996 in Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Medical Association.
• Follow up workshop for participants of the above events in June 1997 in Sri Lanka by Dr Anula Nikapota.
• Organising and funding Dr Stuart Turner, Past President of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and Chair of the UK Trauma Interest Group to visit Sri Lanka and participate in a programme of teaching and training.
• Conference targeted at medical practitioners, policy makers and leaders in education and two days of workshops for clinicians and teachers in May 1998 in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Medical Association.
• Running workshops for media personnel at Rupavahini Corporation on the impact of reporting of traumatic incidents.
• Organising Professor Bill Yule - a world expert on childhood trauma - to visit Sri Lanka and conduct a series of lectures and training workshops.
• Two three day Workshops (2001 & 2002) for Master Teachers on Classroom Detection and Management of Emotional and Behavioural Problems held in Sri Lanka. 25 teacher advisers attended from various regions of the country including Vavuniya, Anuradhapura, Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.
• A workshop held in London on the 21st October 2000 for UK based voluntary groups Working with Refugees on Therapeutic Inputs for Traumatised Children and Adults.
• A Seminar for Media Personnel on Health & Media in Colombo on the 27th August 2001 organised in conjunction with the Sri Lanka Medical Association.
• Commissioning the translation into Sinhala and Tamil of a manual on Cognitive Behavioural Approaches for working with Traumatised Children.
• Supply of books, papers and other material on traumatic stress and psychological correlates to various groups in Sri Lanka.

• Presidential Task Force on Human Disaster Management,
• Sri Lanka Medical Association,
• Department of Education,
• University Academic Departments, the Family Rehabilitation Centre

UKSLTG has forged relationships with numerous individuals and voluntary bodies who are engaged in trauma and mental health work in Sri Lanka. These links serve to inform the group of areas of need where help can be channelled. Due to the instability in the region the group has so far not been able to conduct much work in the North and North East of the country although individual's from the group have visited and worked in Jaffna and border regions. Teachers and medical doctors from the Northern region have attended training events organised by the group. With the peace process and cessation of hostilities gaining momentum it is hoped that the Group will be able to carry out a programme of work in this region in the near future.

In 1999 the group was successful in gaining registration as a Charity in the United Kingdom. The membership of the group is open to mental health professionals or other professionals, who have expertise or an interest in the area of psychological aspects of trauma in relation to Sri Lanka. The activities of the group will be expected to be in line with the ethical frameworks and codes of conduct of individual member's professions (eg. BMA, BPS,UKCC, etc.), and the membership of the group will be on the basis of non racial, non sectarian, non political objectives of working to ameliorate the psychological impact of trauma in Sri Lanka. The executive committee wishes to encourage membership of the Group by individuals with origins from all the major communities in Sri Lanka as well as British professionals.