SINGAPORE – Singapore’s sole psychiatric hospital, the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), will be renamed the National Centre for Mental Health Singapore in 2027, reflecting a broader shift in how the country approaches psychiatric care.
Highlighting a steady rise in mental health challenges in Singapore, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung outlined an overhaul of psychiatric care, which includes rebranding and expanding the Institute of Mental Health and revising parental consent rules to ensure young people are not deterred from seeking help.
“Like our other national specialty centres for cancer, heart or eye, it will lead research, coordinate psychiatric care across hospitals and build sector-wide capabilities,” he said, speaking on Oct 10, which is World Mental Health Day.
The name change, which comes as long-term care is increasingly shifted to community facilities, will mark a major move away from IMH operating as a long-stay asylum or “forever home” for many psychiatric patients.
As part of a broader strategy to handle rising mental health cases across the country, the Government will redevelop and expand IMH at its present site in Buangkok, turning it into a bigger and more modern hospital by 2040, Ong said.
Furthermore, three regional hospitals – Changi General Hospital, Woodlands Hospital and Alexandra Hospital – are strengthening their psychiatric capabilities to complement the central hub.
Beyond expanding facilities, the long-term answer to the mounting mental health challenge is prevention and early intervention, Ong stressed.
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