Apart from its hospital-based services, IMH runs satellite clinics at different locations in Singapore and executes community mental healthcare programmes.

The earliest psychiatric facility in Singapore was a 30-bed building at the corner of Bras Basah Road and Bencoolen Street in 1841.

The New Lunatic Asylum and another psychiatric ward at Pasir Panjang were closed down and 1,030 patients were transferred to the Mental Hospital.

The remaining 1,000 were locked up and neglected, of which about 600 were transferred in 1944 to the Central Mental Hospital, Tanjung Rambutan, in Perak, Malaysia.

For a brief period from 1945 to 1947, the British Royal Air Force from the nearby Seletar Airfield requisitioned the hospital for use to treat the sick and wounded of Allied servicemen and Japanese POWs after the end of World War II.

With the move, it was reorganised and renamed the Institute of Mental Health Hospital to reflect its added commitment to research and training.

With a reinvestment fund of $88 million over 5 years, its objective was to develop national capability in mental health services.

IMH initiated a number of community-based programmes as part of the Blueprint, targeted at the three main population segments—children, adults and the elderly.

Key research spearheaded by IMH include: It has embarked on a S$4.4-million three-year nationwide epidemiological study – Well-being of the Singapore Elderly (WiSE) – that aims to establish high-quality data of the burden of dementia and depression among the elderly in Singapore and to bridge the knowledge gap on the associated risk factors, healthcare use and economic impact.

This study is a collaboration with international and local research investigators from various Singapore hospitals as well as from King's College London.

IMH plays a leading role in developing the current and next generation of mental healthcare professionals.