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It is with great sadness that I have to inform you Dr Anula
Nikapota died on 4 April, suddenly while on holiday with her family. We
are very shocked by her sudden death. Many of us will remember Anula for
her many accomplishments for ACAMH on top of her great expertise
clinically and educationally. We are very shocked by her sudden death.
Her attainments on top of running a very busy general CAMHS clinic in
Brixton were many and varied, and she continued them after retiring from
the NHS.
Dr. Anula Nikapota
She was active on the board of ACAMH and indeed had been active until
the day she died. She was our international officer and was
particularly committed to helping develop staff and services in low and
middle income countries. For example, she was active in making links and
promoting connections in Egypt, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. She saw
through ACAMH granting free memberships for the lowest income countries,
thus extending the reach of the organisation and sharing its resources
widely and generously. At the time of her death she was energetically
planning with Martin, our CEO, how to develop further branches and
partnerships overseas.
She was modern in her outlook, fully embracing the new technology and
opportunities that the Internet offers. With Eric Taylor, she was at an
advanced stage in developing an online module, the first in-house one
for ACAMH, on research methods so that colleagues in developing
countries could carry out their own investigations and evaluations, as
well as getting Continuing Professional Development credit for this. She
was part of the team that delivered around the country the CAMHS
Transformation Clinical Champions project in conjunction with YoungMinds
and MindEd, a package of online resources that clinicians could use to
increase access to evidence-based services.
She was a superb clinician – wise, knowledgeable and with an unerring
ability to engage children and families from diverse backgrounds. She
pioneered many novel strategies to extend and improve the working
relationships between child mental health services and the wider
community, including schools, social care and the voluntary sector.
Anula was internationally known for her expertise on how cultural
diversity may influence the presentation of mental health problems and
attitudes to different interventions.
With the support of Professors Michael Rutter and Eric Taylor, Anula
developed and ran the excellent Diploma/MSc in Child and Adolescent
Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and
Neuroscience. This provides specialist education and training in child
and adolescent mental health for overseas clinicians, including
psychologists, psychiatrists and paediatricians. One of its unusual
features is the direct clinical experience that students get in working
clinics. Under Anula’s leadership, the course attracted distinguished
clinicians from over 50 countries, and for its 30th anniversary in 2018 many of Anula’s previous students returned to London for the celebration.
Anula was always lively and fun with a sparkling sense of humour. She
had a loving husband and family and was an extremely talented musician.
She was a wonderful colleague and she will be greatly missed.
If you would like to share your comments and memories about Anula you can in the section below.
Yours, Professor Stephen Scott, Professor Eric Taylor, and Martin Pratt
Discussion
Deeply saddened to hear this news . Condolences to her family and friends. Her work and dedication will be remembered .
I am also saddened and shocked to hear this – I benefitted a
huge amount from Anula’s wisdom when I was a senior registrar in
Brixton in the mid 1990’s as well as many times since. She made a huge
contribution and will be hugely missed. My thoughts are with her family
at this time
This is such a sad news, I met Anula during my higher specialist
CAMHS training. Her teachings in CAMHS transcultural psychiatry made a
mark in my training. My thoughts are with her family at this difficult
time. She will be surely missed. RIP Anula
Very saddened to hear of this very distressing news. A truly
outstanding colleague and friend to all in the child and adolescent
mental health professions and services. My condolences to her family and
friends.
Sad news indeed; I saw Dr Nikapota only recently, but first met
her in Barking and Dagenham in 1989 when she patiently and very kindly
answered my questions during a training placement with the EP team
there.
I am shocked to hear this sad news. Anula will be greatly missed
for her dedication to the profession and her humane approach. She has
inspired and mentored many pupils from across the world. I am one of
the luckiest to remain in touch until last month and benefit from her
experience and wisdom. My sincere condolences to her loving family at
this difficult time. RIP Anula.
May her soul rest in peace. I appreciate her through her son and
daughter in law who are two lovely people always empathetic ,
thoughtful and helpful.
Reading all the other comments show what an amazing individual we have lost. At least her positive legacy lives on.
Our thoughts are with her family.
I’m very sad to hear this sad news today and would like to pass
my sincere and heartfelt condolences on to Anula’s family. Anula was a
wise and inspiring consultant when I was a specialist registrar in
Brixton in the early 2000s. She had great talent for working with
families from all backgrounds and cultures and immense energy for so
many projects and endeavours, all of which she saw through with her
blend of tenacity and humour. We remained in touch and she was always
incredibly supportive and kind.
It is great loss to international child psychiatry, having lost
one of the champions for building the bridge between the places that has
the most number of children live (and paradoxically has least number of
trained child mental health professionals) and UK.
Anula could carry herself with equal finesse in the IOP and rural Asia and be liked at both places. We will miss you.
Sad news. A great loss to Child Psychiatry. I had done MSc CAMH
course when she was at the helm and found her to be a knowledgeable,down
to earth, genuine person who always kept the child in her alive. Will
miss you, Dr Anula
I am deeply saddened by the news of Anula’s sudden death. It is
difficult to come to terms with it. She was a great clinician with lots
of energy, ideas and sincere interest in promoting child and adolescent
mental health in developing countries but also in deprived areas of
“developed” countries. I met Anula during my training at the Maudsley
and after returning back to Greece I continued to have contact with her.
I will never forget her warm smile and enthusiasm. She will be truly
missed and will always be remembered by those who knew her. My
heartfelt condolences to her family!
This is a sad and shocked news. It was my honor to benefit from
Dr Anula Nikapota when I was training in child and adolescent psychiatry
at the Institute of Psychiatry between 1998 and 2000. She had a great
role in transferring modern child and adolescent psychiatry to different
countries. It is a great loss to world child mental health.
I am so shocked and saddened to hear of Anula’s passing. She was
a kind person with a warm nature whose passion for CAMHS was obvious,
my condolences to her family at this sad time.
My deepest condolence to her family. The course she initiated is
superb and what she contributed to CAMH in LAMICs was countless.
We will miss you, Dr.Anula.
Anula’s death shocks and grieves me keenly. I was eagerly
awaiting her imminent visit to Sri Lanka where she continued to do such
important work. My oldest, very close friend, since our teens in the
50s, when I first came to Sri Lanka from England, we have shared hopes
and fears for this suffering country for so long. Some of my sweetest,
early memories are of her playing the piano while we sang “to the hills”
on the beautiful Peradeniya university campus. I cannot believe that
she is gone.
Deeply saddened to hear this news. She spent a lot of her
valuable times and expertise to develop child mental health in
Cambodia, particularly, was silently being my mentor. My last meeting
her was on 17 January 2019 with a wonderful dinner in a restaurant in
Phnom Penh. Her works and dedicated will be remembered. Condolence to
her family. Wishing her soul Rest in Peace
I was so sad to hear the news of Anula’s sudden death. She was
an inspiration. I admired the way in which she combined rigour, passion,
and grace and helped us all to understand the importance of being
creative and flexible in our teaching whilst keeping an expectation of
unwaveringly high standards. I can hear her now arguing against measures
that seemed unfair for overseas students. My condolences to family and
current colleagues. .
Very sad news. Anula made such a wonderful contribution,
particularly in the areas of Cross Cultural education, studies and
practice. Her courage in developing and sustaining services in Sri Lanka
when there was still conflict, was remarkable. Engaging in training and
research with her was always a pleasure, as were those happy encounters
at Covent Garden and the Festival Hall. Music shared with Vijita and
her children played such an enriching part of home life. Our deep
sympathy to them all.
Sometimes we come across silent heroes who do so much for the
society but never seek glory for it. Dr. Anula nikapota was one such
silent hero. I met her for the first time here in Cambodia and I was so
proud that she was a Sri Lankan like me and that she has done so much
for Sri Lanka and for people in low income countries especially children
and adolescents with mental health issues. I was amazed that even at
the age of 77 she was so dynamic and active. She even encouraged me
before she left. I just can’t believe that she is gone.Such an amazing
soul. R.I.P
It is with deepest sadness I accepted this shocking news.
My professional relationship with Dr Nikapota goes back to 1970s. I
first came to know her as a medical student in late 1970s. Then I worked
with her at the Ward Place Private Hospital in Colombo Sri Lanka
(early 80s) where she use to see her private patients ( a very limited
numbers of needy people). I first heard about abreaction from her .
Later I met her as a senior colleague and my trainer in Child and
Adolescent mental health when i joined the Maudsley training scheme. A
lot of people use to ask me why I wanted to work for a Sri Lankan
trainer. It was obvious. She was a real expert in this field with utmost
sensitivity to cultural aspects of care especially for children. She
was an excellent clinician from whom I learnt a lot. Most of my post
tsunami work in Sri Lanka to help children were grounded in what i
learnt from her.
Then we (with late Padmal De Silva and Dr Shamil Wanigaratne) formed the
UK Sri Lankan Trauma Group. She was passionately committed to help
those who were affected; from both sides of the conflict.
There were many instances, i recall, we had differences of opinion but
she always discussed those with extreme respect and we worked very
closely. I will remember he as one of the most committed individuals
who contributed significantly to teh field especially in providing help
to those who were affected.
She will remain in my memory until my death as some one who i have a huge respect for who she was.
Mat she attain nibbhana
Extremely sad news. My deepest condolences to her family and to
her extensive professional family. I am still in shock and disbelief. I
did the deploma in 1991 and knew her well since. She was quite maternal
to her students. Only later in my clinical work I realised how much I
learnt from her. She was a truly multi talented and wonderful person.
In the summer of 2008, Dr. Nikapota hosted a wonderful lunch for
our CAMHS MSc group at her family home. A personal story which has
profoundly touched my life, was her sharing that she got cold feet,
leaving Sri Lanka for the UK. Whenever in serious lack of courage in my
life, I’ve remind myself that even she -a person of such gravitas,
dedication and determination- had to be encouraged to take the leap. An
extra layer to this was her readiness to embrace the vulnerability of
sharing this with her students, and I came to appreciate this frankness,
as time went on, in becoming a psychotherapist myself. Over the course
of her life and career, she made a mark on so many people’s lives
(whether patients, students, co-workers, research collaborators or whole
organisations) that I believe years will pass before the true size and
effect of it can be appreciated. She will not be forgotten.
