Butabika Hospital is a mental health national referral hospital located in the southeastern part of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. It is the only referral psychiatric hospital in the country and serves the entire population of Uganda, which was estimated to be around 36 million in 2014. Funded and administered by the Uganda Ministry of Health, general care in the hospital is free, making it accessible to all.
Opened in 1955, Butabika Hospital has a bed capacity of 900 and has since become a hub for mental health services in Uganda. The hospital also serves as the psychiatric teaching hospital for Makerere University College of Health Sciences, offering undergraduate and postgraduate training in psychiatry. The Institute of Psychiatric Clinical Officers, a school administered by the Uganda Ministry of Health, is also located within the hospital’s premises, training high school graduates to become psychiatric clinical officers.
Butabika Hospital is not only a hospital but also a center of research and innovation. Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu, a researcher working at the hospital, noticed a large number of HIV/AIDS patients being admitted with serious mental health problems. This inspired her to begin a research program that has since proven that culturally appropriate, group psychotherapy led by non-professional practitioners is an effective treatment of depression in HIV patients, which has positive impacts on their physical health.
