SINGAPORE \u2013 The rebranding of the country\u2019s sole psychiatric hospital in April 2027 is by no means a cosmetic change, says the Institute of Mental Health\u2019s (IMH) chief executive Jamie Mervyn Lim.<\/p>\n
It signals a broader mandate, with IMH playing a bigger leadership role in coordinating care in the community so that people can easily access help, while those in recovery can return to the community upon discharge rather than being institutionalised, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with the name change, it is not about doing the same old, same old just under a different banner,\u201d Lim said in a recent interview, his first since assuming the role nine months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mandate has clearly expanded as a national centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung had, in his Oct 10 World Mental Health Day message, announced that IMH would be renamed the National Centre for Mental Health in 2027,<\/span><\/a> and expanded by 2040, in a clear signal that mental health is a part of fundamental healthcare for the nation.<\/p>\n Lim said the institute\u2019s national role is to lead and work across healthcare clusters, government agencies and community partners to achieve coordinated support across the full spectrum of mental health issues and efforts, from mental well-being to complex mental illnesses.<\/p>\n This corresponds with the four-tiered care model in Singapore\u2019s national mental healthcare framework, where interventions start with mental wellness at the lowest Tier 1 through to high-acuity care at Tier 4.<\/p>\n With mental health firmly on the radar of the Health Ministry, IMH is being reshaped into an anchor for a whole-of-nation care network.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a national centre, we now have to take on the lens of a national role,\u201d Lim said.<\/p>\n IMH CEO Jamie Mervyn Lim said that its rebranding is by no means a cosmetic change.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Prior to joining IMH, he was the CEO of Ren Ci Hospital from 2023 to 2025, and the chief operating officer at Tan Tock Seng Hospital from 2015 to 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking on that kind of responsibility doesn\u2019t mean that we will be the service provider, but it means that we will have to play a (bigger) leadership role in trying to coordinate, match supply to demand… and see how we can optimise the system so that persons in recovery can find meaning back in the community rather than being institutionalised.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, IMH is the only psychiatric hospital in Singapore, with a specialised inpatient facility. In the community, there are many organisations, particularly in the social service sector, providing different mental health programmes and services.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe question is, how do we better coordinate all these services so that we can string together a more coherent service,\u201d Lim said. \u201cMany helping hands are good, but your many helping hands must be coordinated. Otherwise, everybody is doing good things, but doing their own good thing in isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading the move to coordinate care, IMH established an office on Oct 1 that brings community programmes, partnerships and outreach efforts together under one team.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the last six months, IMH has gathered various social service agencies, public healthcare institutions and government agencies to discuss how to uplift the mental health ecosystem.<\/p>\n In September, it held a retreat where it met 122 participants from 34 organisations to explore where the gaps are today, what the aspirations are for Singapore\u2019s mental health ecosystem, and how partners can better coordinate care. Lim said it was the first of many such conversations to come.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you don\u2019t have a good tiering system, then there is a bit of a lost-sheep feeling: I don\u2019t know who to turn to, where to turn to. And then IMH becomes the last resort in a sense, or the only door that people can think of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Early support should be accessible through existing platforms such as schools, workplaces and active ageing centres, he said.<\/p>\n Should individuals need professional help, a very clear framework would guide the escalation to general practitioners, polyclinics or social service agencies staffed with counsellors and psychologists, Lim said.<\/p>\n \u201cYour next tier would be the public healthcare institutions, and then you have IMH,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, with patients continuing to receive care at the hospital, its redevelopment will happen in phases, stretching towards 2040, Lim said. To manage the waiting times, early access to care could be provided through a psychologist instead of a child psychiatrist, he added.<\/p>\n By the early 2030s, three regional hospitals \u2013 Changi General Hospital, Woodlands Hospital and Alexandra Hospital \u2013 will be able to take on some of the rising load when they open psychiatric wards that could have around 100 beds each, Lim said.<\/p>\n Lim with (from left) assistant nurse clinician Eric Ling, senior staff nurse Mokshaa Suriyanarayanah and nurse educator Jurianah Basri at IMH.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This will free IMH to focus on the country\u2019s most complex psychiatric cases, including treatment-resistant disorders, as it builds depth across 10 areas, including addiction medicine, crisis de-escalation, and forensic psychiatry.<\/p>\n The next step is to hire more healthcare professionals such as psychiatrists, physicians, nurses or allied health professionals, as well as send them for training, Lim said.<\/p>\n As psychiatric patients age, they are likely to have more physical health issues. IMH intends to beef up its general medicine, diagnostics, and imaging capabilities so that it can manage medical conditions on-site rather than transfer patients to nearby hospitals.<\/p>\n Lim said a new national research centre for mental health will unite various academic institutions and healthcare clusters to study mental health challenges through a local lens, to generate insights that can be used to guide care here.<\/p>\n He is clear about the work that lies ahead, and is cautiously optimistic. \u201cI don\u2019t think a name change is going to be that magic pill to say from tomorrow there is no stigma to mental health conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we really want to achieve as a national centre is to create a healthcare ecosystem that enables a person in recovery to live, to recover, and to participate meaningfully in society.\u201d<\/p>\n Mental health stigma will clearly be reduced when society can accept the person in recovery in their midst, Lim pointed out.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can achieve that through our different touch points, working with different partners in the community, with our fellow tertiary hospitals, that would be an indication of success.\u201d<\/p>\n Wards in Woodbridge Hospital in 1979.<\/p>\n PHOTO: ST FILE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n From a 30-bed colonial-era hospital to a modern 2,000-bed tertiary institution, and soon a national centre of excellence, Singapore\u2019s sole psychiatric hospital has evolved alongside the Republic\u2019s approach to mental healthcare. Here is a look at its 185-year history.<\/p>\n 1841: <\/b>The 30-bed Insane Hospital was established at the corner of Bras Basah Road and Bencoolen Street to care for people with mental illnesses who had previously been conned in jail.<\/p>\n 1861:<\/b> The hospital moved to a 100-bed facility near Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital and was renamed the Lunatic Asylum.<\/p>\n 1887:<\/b> The Lunatic Asylum relocated to College Road, expanding its capacity to 300 beds.<\/p>\n 1928:<\/b> A 24-ward Mental Hospital opened off Yio Chu Kang Road to provide custodial care for patients with mental illness. It initially housed 1,030 patients.<\/p>\n 1942:<\/b> The hospital was taken over for military use as a convalescent hospital. Some patients were sent home, while 500 were transferred to St John\u2019s Island. Many never returned.<\/p>\n 1946:<\/b> The Mental Hospital reopened.<\/p>\n An aerial view of the old Woodbridge Hospital.<\/p>\n PHOTO: IMH<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 1951:<\/b> The Mental Hospital was renamed Woodbridge Hospital, after a wooden bridge, known as Pang Kio in Hokkien, over a stream near the Seletar River. The change was intended to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.<\/p>\n 1953:<\/b> During a six-day strike involving 450 attendants, The Straits Times reported that the hospital had 1,758 patients.<\/p>\n 1982:<\/b> The hospital began providing specialist training under the Master of Medicine (Psychiatry) programme offered by the National University of Singapore.<\/p>\n 1993:<\/b> The hospital moved to its current premises at Buangkok Green Medical Park in Hougang. It was designed around a capacity of about 2,000 beds, compared with the larger institutional capacity of the old Woodbridge Hospital. The name Institute of Mental Health (IMH) was added to reflect a greater emphasis on research, training and mental health education.<\/p>\n 1998:<\/b> The road at the former Woodbridge Hospital was renamed Gerald Drive.<\/p>\n 2007\/2008:<\/b> The Woodbridge Hospital name was phased out of use, leaving the institution known solely as IMH.<\/p>\n 2027:<\/b> The 2,000-bed IMH is set to be known as the National Centre for Mental Health Singapore.<\/p>\n SOURCES: NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD, INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH, THE STRAITS TIMES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 The rebranding of the country\u2019s sole psychiatric hospital in April 2027 is by no means a cosmetic change, says the Institute of Mental…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
Many helping hands, but care is fragmented<\/h2>\n
Expanding within and beyond the hospital to improve care<\/h2>\n
<\/picture><\/div>
A name change is no magic pill<\/h2>\n
\nIMH through the ages<\/h2>\n
<\/picture><\/div>
The early years<\/h3>\n
The Woodbridge era<\/h3>\n
<\/picture><\/div>
1993 to now<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n