The Department of psychiatry is one of the departments at the Faculty of Health Sciences. It was established in 1971 soon after the start of the medical college in 1967. The department is situated at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). For teaching purposes, the department also uses Mathari Mental Referral Hospital, which is situated about 10 kilometres away from KNH a long Thika super Highway. At KNH together with staff from KNH we run outpatient clinics for both adults and children. We also work closely with Mathari hospital to train our students, both postgraduates and undergraduates.
In the year 2022, the Department graduated twenty nine (29) students: 21 with master of medicine degree in Psychiatry; 7 with Master of Science degree in clinical psychology; and, 1 PhD student. The department currently has 11 academic staff members and 5 administrative staff. It is the collaborative teamwork of every member of staff that has enabled the department to achieve her objectives.
The department has three major projects supported with project staffs. The projects are: Smart Africa, Aspire and Dapper. Main activity of Smart Africa is to work with parents and their children to improve on respectful communication. The major activity of the Aspire project is to focus on mental health needs of pregnant adolescents.
