The Department of Psychiatry provides comprehensive mental health services ranging from biological treatment to psychosocial treatment facilities. The department has several dedicated and experienced faculty and is one among the earliest centres in the country to cater to the needs of mentally ill and emotionally disturbed clients in the general hospital settings. The creative, proficient and dedicated team of therapists consisting of psychiatrists, clinical psychologist, psychiatric social workers, counselors, occupational therapists and trained nurses has helped us to evolve into a regional leader in mental health services, education, training and research.

DEPARTMENT HISTORY

It started functioning in 1973 under the leadership of Dr. George Isaac, the first psychiatrist of the department. The Head of the Department was Dr. V M D Namboodiri from 1975 to 2005 following which Dr. Kuruvilla Mathew headed the department till 2013. The department currently functions under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Varghese.

Vision

One of the key strategies in mental health is early intervention. The evidence for early intervention in almost all areas of mental health is indisputable. Early intervention in patients with psychosis have shown that not only does reaching out to young people experiencing psychosis for the first time benefit their health but it also increases their chances of getting into employment

Our Facilities

SERVICES OFFERED

Adult psychiatry , Neuropsychiatric clinic for elderly , Services for Child/Adolescent psychiatric / psychological problems , Substance abuse management (De-addiction Services)

ANNAPOORNA SCHEME

It is a novel scheme for giving free food to poor patients admitted in the general ward. It was launched in January 1993 by the selfless and incessant effort of Dr. VMD Namboodiri, who was the head of the department at that time. He has instituted a corpus fund for this programme.

MMM INTEGRATED REHABILITATION CENTRE FOR ADDICTS

The department also runs a de-addiction centre for patients with substance use disorder since 1994. It is sponsored by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India. Currently Mr. Francis Moothedan is the Project Director of the De-addiction Centre.