The National Institute of Mental Health has launched programmes to train prison officials and health workers to identify mental health conditions in institutional settings and refer people for treatment, officials said at a media briefing in Colombo on Thursday.

NIMH Director and Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Dhammika Alahapperuma said the training forms part of wider efforts to improve early identification and treatment. Speaking at the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, he said mental illness can affect people of all ages and backgrounds, and that identifying conditions, addressing public fear and misconception, and reducing stigma were essential to better outcomes.

The figures

Dr. Alahapperuma said the institute:

The public can obtain mental health advice through the 24-hour 1926 helpline, he said. The institute is also running awareness work across media platforms, including social media, and has introduced targeted programmes for schoolchildren, teachers and young people.

Adolescents, substance abuse and screen time

At the same briefing, Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Gayani Siriwardena said the institute has launched a series of programmes on adolescent mental health, focused in particular on substance abuse and excessive digital screen use.

The programmes are being run to mark World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10. This year’s theme is “Listening to Lived Experiences: Real Voices, Real Change.”

Dr. Siriwardena said adolescents had been identified as a group needing greater attention, and that the initiatives give young people opportunities to discuss their experiences, raise awareness of issues affecting their mental health, and build coping skills. She said further programmes to support staff working in demanding environments are scheduled in the coming days, and that the institute would continue the World Mental Health Day activities.

Context

The briefing follows the National Mental Health Programme launched at Viharamahadevi Park on 10 September to mark World Suicide Prevention Day, where the Health Ministry put the national toll at between 3,100 and 3,500 suicides a year and promoted the same 1926 helpline. Screen use among children has also drawn official attention: a Health Promotion Bureau survey of 1,100 children, reported in September, found 64% spend more than 30 minutes a day on screens and 43% are fed while using one.

Around 400 patients have recovered but cannot leave

A further disclosure from the same briefing was reported on Friday. Approximately 400 people who have recovered from mental illness and completed their treatment remain at the institute, unable to leave and return home, Dr. Alahapperuma said, according to Hiru News.

He said establishing regional rehabilitation centres, through government and private sector involvement, would help address the situation.

The figure describes patients occupying beds not because they need clinical care but because there is nowhere for them to go — a bottleneck at the discharge end of a system the same briefing described as treating more than 1,000 patients a day.

Not reported

Hiru’s filing does not say how long these 400 patients have been at the institute, why they cannot return home, or whether the barrier is family refusal, homelessness, guardianship, or the absence of community care. It gives no cost, location or timeline for the regional rehabilitation centres proposed, and does not say whether any have been approved.

The officials did not say how many prison officials or health workers have been trained so far, which prisons or institutions are covered, or over what period the programmes will run. No figures were given for the scale of screen-related presentations at the institute, and the briefing did not define what level of use it treats as excessive.

The filings do not report the cost of the programmes, the source of funding, or whether the Department of Prisons is a formal partner in the training.