Clinical Services
Institute of Psychiatry is the only facility for providing mental health services among the teaching hospitals affiliated with Rawalpindi Medical College. The Institute is providing all kinds of clinical services including outpatient, inpatient, emergency and liaison services, forensic psychiatric services and the community mental health services.
Outpatient Services
OPD service is provided 4 days a week on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. One consultant and 4 PG Trainees are responsible for each OPD day and on an average more than 100 patients are seen on each OPD day. The catchments area of Institute of Psychiatry includes the districts of Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Attock, Jhelum and those of Azad Jammu & Kashmir in addition to other areas like Abbotabad, Khoshab, and Gujrat etc. The record of every patient is maintained in OPD register.
Inpatient Services
Institute of Psychiatry is a 50-bedded unit, which is divided into a male ward, a female ward and a forensic unit. There are separate units for occupational therapy and ECT.
Psychiatric Emergencies & Liaison Referrals
The Institute also provides the services for the liaison cases from other departments of all the hospitals affiliated with Rawalpindi Medical College and it also looks after the patients referred through emergency department for psychiatry evaluation.
Neuropsychiatric Facilities
The Institute is well equipped with the facilities of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) and electro-encephalography (EEG).
Forensic Services
Forensic services mean the provision of mental health care facilities to the prisoners of Rawalpindi Central Jail, Adyala:
1- By a medical officer in the prison on regular basis after every two weeks when he visits the jail and examines all the prisoners with psychiatric complaints.
2- By a consultant when he is asked to examine a prisoner in the jail by a court and to give opinion
3- Sometimes prisoners are referred by the court for psychiatric opinion.
It also includes the rendering of psychiatric opinions about the persons referred by any court of law.
Substance Abuse & Detoxification
In 1997 the Institute was assigned the additional duty as Drug Abuse Treatment Centre by WHO.
Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Services
Child and Adolescent psychiatric services did not exist in the Institute. In 2004, an E-Mental health clinic was established at the Institute in collaboration with the University of Manchester, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. This lead to the formation of child and adolescent psychiatry special interest group (CAPSIG). Prof. Atif Rehman who is a consultant in child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Royal Manchester Children Hospital conducted a short introductory course at the Institute. One case per week was then emailed to Prof. Rehman, who provided expert feedback and resource material relevant to the case.
Community Mental Health Services
To lead the changes outlined in National Plan for Mental Health, several demonstration projects were set up by the Institute of Psychiatry, Rawalpindi, which is the WHO Collaborating Centre for mental health research and training in Pakistan.
Disaster Mental Health Psychiatric Services
On Saturday, October 8, 2005, a massive earthquake of 7.6 on the Richter scale struck Azad Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the North Western Province of Pakistan. An estimated 83,000 people died and more than 150,000 were injured, while about 3.5 million people were affected by the earthquake. This is one of the largest natural disasters in Pakistan’s history. It has affected health in all its dimensions, through death, destruction of infrastructure, disintegration of social support networks, sources of livelihood and ongoing uncertainty about the future. All these factors tend to adversely affect the mental health (and psychosocial well-being) of individuals and communities, by increasing the psychosocial distress and psychiatric morbidity in not only the short term but in the long term as well. These adverse effects will have consequences for many years for a large number of people and can hinder the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts at the individual as well as communal level.