Abstract
Mental health and Psychiatry are relatively new as a medical specialty in Nepal. Psychiatry and its issues are still the matter of stigma, mystery, ignorance and negligence not only in public but also in professional and policy-maker level. It is yet to receive its due space in health policy in terms of: program, priority and resource allocation. Despite of some achievements in mental health field (service, teaching and research), they are too far from satisfaction. Along with other responsibilities in this pretext, a department of psychiatry of a teaching institute naturally bears on its shoulder a huge burden of spreading scientific information, adding to literature and destigmatizing mental health issues. The fact, data, information and awareness is a main means of changing present situation. This article intends to briefly outline the milestones, major attempts, achievements and publications in this direction, of Department of Psychiatry of B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), a prominent centre for the medical education, service and research in Nepal. The basis of this review are: Journals, Abstract-books, BPKIHS Annual Reports, Thesis, other research works, Internet search, books, papers and personal communication with both concerned faculty members and students coming into the knowledge of the author. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jpan.v3i1.11354 J Psychiatrists’ Association of Nepal Vol .3, No.1, 2014: 48-57
Highlights
There were a psychiatrist and a houseofficer under Department of Medicine. It began with OPD, indoor (4 beds allotted to Psychiatry on SOS basis) and 24-hour-emergency service.[2]
Anxiety[73,74] and other neurotic disorders[75,76] were addressed and psychiatric illness studied in various major stress contexts of Nepal, i.e. decade long armed conflict,[77] abroad work[78] and status of HIV positive[79]
The Annual Reports of the Institute witness the completion of numerous research projects; many of them have been presented in local, national and even International conferences.[4]
Summary
P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) was established in 1993 as the biggest Nepal-India project, with the vision of upliftment of health status of eastern Nepal and production of quality health workforce.[1] Department of Psychiatry was established at BPKIHS in 1995 when psychiatry service was first provided in the institute by Dr HP Jhingan from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, India). Best Presentation Award of the First World room for electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) This ward currently has 30 beds (inclusive of 3 female and 5 male De-addiction unit beds), making it the largest psychiatry in-patient facility in the country in a general hospital setting. Statistical Review of its Annual Patient (WCAP-2), Taipei, Taiwan (2009) awarded to service data[4]
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