The community psychiatry movement started in India in the early 1950s.
It has gone through different phases of development, beginning with family
care of people who are mentally ill in the campus of the mental hospitals,
followed by satellite clinics and a national mental health programme. Other
initiatives have included the camp approach, initiatives by non-government
organisations and the media, and mental health services for
disaster-affected populations. The paper traces the development of community
psychiatry in India over the past six decades.