From IMH to the National Centre for Mental Health, and what the new name means for Singapore

SINGAPORE - The rebranding of the country’s sole psychiatric hospital in April 2027 is by no means a cosmetic change, says chief executive of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) Jamie Mervyn Lim.

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.

“So with the name change, it is not about doing the same old, same old just under a different banner,” Lim said in a recent interview, his first since assuming the role nine months ago.

“The mandate has clearly expanded as a national centre.”

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung had, in his Oct 10 World Mental Health Day message, announced that IMH would be renamed as the National Centre for Mental Health in 2027, and expanded by 2040, in a clear signal that mental health is a part of fundamental healthcare for the nation.

Lim said the institute’s 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.

This corresponds with the four-tiered care model in Singapore’s national mental healthcare framework, where interventions start with mental wellness at the lowest Tier 1 through to high-acuity care at Tier 4.

With mental health firmly on the radar of the Ministry of Health (MOH), IMH is being reshaped into an anchor for a whole-of-nation care network.

“As a national centre, we now have to take on the lens of a national role,” Lim said.

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.

“Taking on that kind of responsibility doesn’t 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.”

Many helping hands, but care is fragmented

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. 

“The question is, how do we better coordinate all these services so that we can string together a more coherent service,” Lim said.

“Many 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.”

Leading the move to coordinate care, IMH established an office on Oct 1 that brings together community programmes, partnerships and outreach efforts under one team. 

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.

In September, it held a retreat where it met with 122 participants from 34 organisations to explore where the gaps are today, what the aspirations are for Singapore’s mental health ecosystem, and how partners can better coordinate care. Lim said it was the first of many such conversations to come.

“When you don’t have a good tiering system, then there is a bit of a lost sheep feeling: I don’t 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.” 

Early support should be accessible through existing platforms such as schools, workplaces and active ageing centres, he said.

Should individuals need professional help, a very clear framework would guide the escalation to GPs, polyclinics or social service agencies staffed with counsellors and psychologists, Lim said.

“Your next tier would be the public healthcare institutions, and then you have IMH,” he said.

Expanding within and beyond the hospital to improve care

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, Lim said.

By the early 2030s, three regional hospitals - Changi General Hospital, Woodlands Hospital and Alexandra Hospital - 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.

This will free IMH to focus on the country’s most complex psychiatric cases, including treatment-resistant disorders, as it builds depth across 10 areas, including addiction medicine, crisis de-escalation, and forensic psychiatry.

The next step is to hire more healthcare professionals such as psychiatrists, physicians, nurses or allied health professionals, as well as sending them for training, Lim said.

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 transferring patients to nearby hospitals.

Lim also said that 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.

A name change is no magic pill

He is clear about the work that lies ahead and is cautiously optimistic. “I don’t think a name change is going to be that magic pill to say from tomorrow there is no stigma to mental health conditions,” Lim said.

“What we really want to 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.”

Mental health stigma will clearly be reduced when society can accept the person in recovery in their midst, he pointed out.

“If 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.”