The Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS), in Delhi, India is working to provide psychiatric and mental health services to the community and to de-institutionalise patient care. Over the last 15 years, the institute has strived to go beyond preventing institutionalisation; to developing and demonstrating a model of de-institutionalisation. The institute has shifted focus from inpatient care to outpatient care. Every day its outpatient clinic sees 900 clients, of whom 100 will be first contact patients and 800 follow-up patients.
Of these clients 0.5% to 1% are hospitalised - meaning at least 99% of patients are managed as outpatients. Patients who are hospitalised usually stay just 3 or 4 weeks. A high number of these clients are destitute or homeless people. They are treated, then their families are traced or they are provided with social care. The Institute for Human Behaviours & Allied Sciences is the first mental health institution in India to be recognised by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) – the national quality assurance for health providers in India. i
www.hbas.delhi.gov.in