Stigma keeps some doctors away from mental health, a priority in postwar Sri Lanka
Many young doctors avoid psychiatry due to social stigma and family expectations. Cultural myths and fears over marriage prospects discourage especially female students. Meanwhile, suicide and mental health disorders are on the rise in the Northern Province, amid poverty and isolation.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Doctors working in northern Sri Lanka are reluctant to pursue psychiatry due to stigma and social expectations. As a result, the area is experiencing shortages in mental health specialists.
Even in 2025, the stigma surrounding psychiatry and mental disorders is deeply rooted in all South Asian countries.
Although attitudes in southern Sri Lanka have gradually evolved, those in the north, influenced by Tamil and Hindu cultures and isolated by 30 years of war, are unfortunately slow to change.
Students in Jaffna are said to be the least interested in pursuing a career in psychiatry, as it is widely assumed that psychiatrists develop mental illnesses after treating patients for a period of time.
Furthermore, pressure from parents, who fear the profession could affect the marriage prospects of their children, and the concerns of future in-laws (especially for female medical students) discourage young doctors from pursuing psychiatry.
Currently, the North is experiencing a rise in suicides among young people aged 15 to 24, paralleled by a rise in cases of depression, including childhood and postpartum depression, and other related mental disorders.
Mental health needs in the North, marked by severe poverty and social disadvantages, including caste-based repression, are more pressing than in other parts of the country.
However, due to social stigma, in recent years only a few doctors have decided to provide mental health services in the North, where they are most needed.
The tragic suicide of Dr Arulampalam, the first psychiatrist at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, and the development of behavioral and cognitive problems in another psychiatrist at the same hospital due to frontal lobe syndrome a few years ago, have further reinforced this negative public perception, exacerbating and legitimising the stigma.
Christine Aruliah and Arjun Ravichandararajah, originally from Kilinochchci, Northern Province, third-year medical students at the University of Peradeniya, explained to AsiaNews that, “Most Northerners believe that psychiatrists themselves end up developing mental illnesses”, which is complicated by “deeply rooted cultural and religious myths.”
Their families opposed their choice to pursue a career in psychiatry. “So we decided to become paediatricians," they say, “even though it would be essential in the post-war period, since most people can't watch action movies or tolerate loud noises, as memories of the war in the North continue to haunt them.”
Another student, a senior, “found herself in the same situation, unable to pursue a career in psychiatry due to pressure from her future husband's family, who opposed it,” they noted.
Similarly, Lakshmi Sabesan of Alaveddy, Jaffna, had nurtured a dream of becoming a doctor since childhood.
As a final-year medical student at Jaffna University, her growing fascination with psychiatry, coupled with the plight of people in the north, especially in the post-war period, strengthened her resolve to heal their minds as well.
However, due to pressure from her family, she had to give up her passion to continue her studies in psychiatry.
Psychiatrists Dinesh Pathamarajah and Archuna Sivagurunathan said that they were able to pursue their dreams while attending the University of Colombo, far from their families and relatives.
“After witnessing the civil war and its aftermath, we decided to pursue a career as psychiatrists, as we realised that the psychological wounds of northerners were being neglected,” they explained.
Hence, “We worked in various parts of the country before taking up positions in Jaffna. Although our families currently live in Colombo, we decided to work in Jaffna due to the shortage of psychiatrists.”
In their view, mental health services are inadequate and the authorities are to blame for poorly handling the situation in the post-war period, which has led to the current crisis in the North.
After the war ended, the authorities expected the population to simply return to normal life without consequences. They were wrong.
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