Therefore, most of these health care facilities encompass a dark past where the patients were treated very poorly under unfavourable conditions. Even though with time the conditions have improved, it is common knowledge that the patients underwent atrocious treatments such as, trephination, starvation, beatings, and punishments at the hands of their caregivers. Unfortunately, some institutions have been unable to disengage completely from their histories with such practices. The National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) which was established in 1926 as the Angoda Mental Asylum was transformed into a modern mental health care facility in the 1980s. It was upgraded to the National Institute of Mental Health, Sri Lanka to be the nerve centre for clinical care and for specialized services and training & research in mental health by a Cabinet decision on 31st October 2008.1 At present, it is the largest tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka caring for clients with mental illness and the only mental health care facility in Sri Lanka facilitating involuntary admissions. The facility provides long-term in-patient care for patients who are suffering from severe mental disorders, while also attending to outpatients with mild mental health conditions. NIMH has a capacity of 1409 beds and annually around 7000 clients are admitted seeking treatment for a wide range of mental diseases. In addition, the hospital has also launched a helpline with the short code of 1926 which is functioning throughout the day. Patients at NIMH The patients are housed in different units; the adolescent unit, learning disability unit, perinatal psychiatry unit, acute units, intermediate units, substance misuse unit, forensic psychiatry unit, geriatric unit, neurotic unit, long term rehabilitating male and female units in NIMH and Mulleriyawa, and the paying units (Villas), according to their different mental health conditions. The Commission was concerned about the forensic psychiatry unit's lack of prison guards and about housing both remand and convicted prisoners (patients in both acute and intermediate stages) in the same space. Furthermore, admitting patients with substance misuse problems to regular acute wards instead of a separate unit, was also identified to be a substantial issue. In addition, overcrowding and understaffing appeared a common problem faced by a majority of the aforementioned units. While the general structure of the daily routines of these patients was observed to be similar, some differences can be seen in relation to their special needs, and rehabilitating activities. Even though the visitation hours of NIMH are from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm unlike in other hospitals, it appeared that there is a limited number of visitors, and a lot of patients are waiting for their families to return to their homes. 1 N.I.M.H. Guidelines, Version 2, Released on 07.04.22, Ministry of Health Sri Lanka. 2|Page