Collaborative development of a new course and service in Sri Lanka

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has a long established service developm ent and research programme with Sri Lankan colleagues. The Centre for inter national Child Health (CICH) is an academic unit with public health interes ts in the countries of the South. Together a group of collaborators at GOSH , CICH and in Sri Lanka worked together to plan how a cadre of health worke rs could be prepared to work with people with communication disabilities. T his is not an uncommon aim in under-served countries and there is a small p ublished literature about the courses which have been developed. Choices ab out models for training, service delivery and ensuring sustainability in em erging sen ices for people with communication disabilities are complex. Lin ks can be made with development work in other disciplines. The literature r elating to these issues in countries such as Sri Lanka is examined.