Uppala Chandrasekera, a Sri Lankan-born expert with wide experience in mental health both on provincial and federal levels, has been appointed to the Toronto Police Services Board.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s cabinet has also named Uppala, Director of Policy and Planning at the Canadian Mental Health Association, as a provincial appointee to the board for the next three years.
University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University alumna who came to Canada when she was eight years old was sworn in by Police Services Board Chair Andy Pringle on Thursday.
Highly respected in her field with dozens of research publications to her credit, Uppala is at present serving a five-year term in the Mental Health Commission of Canada as Vice Chair. In 2011 she was recognized by the Association of Ontario Health Centres as a New Emerging Leader. A Registered Social Worker, Uppala holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University.
In an interview with Raj Girn, Uppala, said she came to Canada when she was eight years old at the height of the civil war in Sri Lanka and lived in Hamilton, a suburb about 45 minutes’ drive from Toronto. She said there is a close-knit Sri Lankan community in the city but from her young days she observed how new immigrants struggled with resettlement in a foreign country, leading to stress and other mental trauma.
“South Asians have lot of love and support among them but mental health is something we don’t talk about. We pretend it does not exist in our community” she said, adding that there was lot of anxiety and stress due to resettlement which can lead to bigger issues later in life. “There is lot of care and support but the stigma attached to the subject of mental health prevent many in South Asian communities from seeking treatment”.
In her young days, she wanted to be a lawyer or to work in the field of law enforcement but she said she decided to change her direction to be a social worker when she was working as a correctional officer at a secure custody of young offenders in Nunavut, a Native Indian province. The young inmates she served were not getting required support and treatment they needed and, sadly, they were recycled in the system being sent from facility to facility, she said.
Talking about refugees, she says when they come here first they are busy surviving and if they have mental issues they keep postponing treatment till they resettle successfully, but going for treatment almost never happens.
She says there is lot of help for people suffering from mental trauma in Canada. Most workplaces have employee assistance programs in addition to many awareness campaigns like Bell’s Let’s Talk, there are also 32 community health centres spread throughout Ontario providing support and counselling services. She thinks they should be adequately funded and suggests that there should be more facilities for an annual mental health checkups.
