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State Mental Health Institute is a psychiatric hospital based in Uttarakhand, India. It provides services to patients from Uttarakhand as well as adjoining states such as Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The hospital's outpatient arm treats more than 10,000 patients per year. There are 30 beds for inpatient psychiatric admissions. It is situated in Selaqui, a part of Dehradun, Uttarakhand at National highway 72 about 25 km from main city towards Paonta Sahib.

Controversy and criticisms

Allegations of neglect of patients

In 2012, Gharwal Post reported that psychiatric patients were neglected by the hospital staff. The newspaper alleged that there was only one psychiatrist to attend to the thousands of out-patients as well as all the 30 in-patients who are admitted at a time. It also stated that this figure remained the unchanged for 4 years and the quality of care was further decreased due to the housing of involuntary patients who are usually uncooperative.

In 2013, Times of India journalist Tarun Vijay visited the hospital and wrote about the conditions in his blog. He reported that the hospital was in a dilapidated condition, under-staffed and most hospital equipments were non-functional.

This institute has two psychiatrists nowadays and two medical officers. Administration is supervised by chief medical superintendent. Both psychiatrists are having experience of over ten years in their field. Institute has already proposed to increase its bed strength to 100.

References

1. ^ Dhyani, Vivek (29 February 2012). "State Mental Health Institute". Garhwal Post. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013.
2. "When a hospital turns into hell". Times of India.

v t e Mental health and healthcare in India
Psychiatric hospitals and other in-patient units	Antara Bangur Institute of Neurosciences Central Institute of Psychiatry Ranchi Institute of Mental Health, Amritsar Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research State Mental Health Institute Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro and Allied Sciences Yerwada Mental Hospital
Non-governmental organizations	AASRA The Alternative Story The Banyan Lifeline Foundation The Live Love Laugh Foundation Schizophrenia Research Foundation Vandrevala Foundation
Mental health professional associations	Indian Psychiatric Society Indian Association of Private Psychiatry Indian Association of Clinical Psychology National Academy of Psychology
Mental health journals	Indian Journal of Psychiatry Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Mens Sana Monographs
Key people	H. Narayan Murthy Radhika Chandiramani Bhargavi Davar Vikram Patel Anirudh Kala Alok Sarin Indira Sharma Shekhar Seshadri Girindrasekhar Bose M. Sarada Menon
Controversy & criticism	Erwadi fire incident Political abuse of psychiatry in India

• Psychiatric hospitals in India
• Hospitals in Uttarakhand
• Dehradun