Nalini Pandalangat: Help-Seeking in the Sri Lankan Tamil Community in Toronto
This presentation will focus on help-seeking behaviour and factors impacting help-seeking. It will look at the influences of gender, identity, migration history and cultural issues on help-seeking behavior. It will also explore preferences with regard to choice of service providers and provide specific recommendations with regards to service provision.
Biographical statement:
Nalini Pandalangat is working at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as Manager Research, Knowledge Development and Exchange in the Community Support and Research Unit. Prior to this she managed a post-tsunami initiative undertaken by CAMH, through CIDA funding in Sri Lanka. Through this project a number of mental health and addiction services were either set up or enhanced, especially in the North and East of Sri Lanka. She is a collaborator on the Tamil Mental Health Research Project undertaken by the University of Toronto. She has a Masters and Post Masters Degree in Psychiatric Social Work from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, India, a premier mental health institution in Asia. Currently she is doing her PhD at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Dr. Mary Seeman. Her focus is on cultural issues in depression. She is the recipient of the 2006 Helen Marion Walker Soroptomist Award for gender based research. Nalini has worked as a mental health consultant for around 10 years, in the corporate, health and social service sectors in India. She has provided information and guidance for psycho- social issues through a popular television channel in India.
Nalini is committed to research transfer, health promotion and gender sensitive, culturally competent program development initiatives.
