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NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors

Dr Iyngaranathan Selvaratnam

Dr Iyngaranathan Selvaratnam has worked at STARTTS since 2020, first as a Tamil Bi-Cultural Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Projection Officer, and currently as a Trainer. He is passionate about capacity building and enhancing mental health literacy amongst Tamil Community members and health service providers, particularly in relation to suicide prevention, reducing mental health stigma as well as the provision of trauma informed and culturally safe care. He prides himself on being able to draw on both his lived experience of intergenerational trauma as a member of the Tamil community and his experience as a health professional when delivering training.

Dr Iyngaranathan Selvaratnam is an Eelam Tamil born in Jaffna. He left Sri Lanka as a toddler with his parents in the aftermath of the ‘Black July’ riots in 1983 where up to 3000 Tamil civilians were killed. These riots were the culmination of decades of collective violence and systemic discrimination targeting Tamils that sparked a subsequent decades long freedom struggle, with the peak of the Tamil Genocide in 2009.

Iyngaran is also currently one of the principal General Practitioners at Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service and has a special interest in Diabetes, Mental Health and Medical Education, which includes providing supervision and support to General Practice Registrars and Medical Students on placement. He completed his undergraduate medical training throughout North Queensland whilst studying at James Cook University. He returned to the Northern Territory after this, where he grew up, and went on to complete his General Practice training across various rural, remote and urban settings. He has since worked for over 10 years in Aboriginal Community Controlled Primary Healthcare in both the Northern Territory and NSW in clinical and executive management roles.

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