Mental health is an integral and essential component of health.

The World Health Organization constitution states: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

Butabika Hospital was established in 1955, and currently is the only National Referral Mental Health Institution in the Country. The hospital provides general and specialized mental health treatment for mental health patients and is a teaching hospital for a broad range of mental health specialists, from nursing to Post – Graduate students. Butabika Hospital also provides primary health care services to the people from the surrounding area as well as supports other hospitals within the referral system, while also providing technical advice to Health Service Commission and to policy-making bodies. Finally, Butabika Hospital is an important platform for research into mental health trends in Uganda, and approaches to tackling the problem.

Butabika is located in Butabika, about 12 km East of Kampala City and it is the second biggest Hospital in Uganda with a bed capacity of 550, though the number often ranges between 850-1000 in patients. The Hospital also handles a busy outpatient department with contact of about 350 clients per day in both the general and mental healthcare areas.

The hospital also serves as the psychiatric teaching hospital for Makerere University College of Health Sciences for both undergraduate and postgraduate training, especially for the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), Master of Medicine in Psychiatry (MMed Psych) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Psychiatry.

Butabika Hospital is also the location of the School of Psychiatric Clinical Officers (SPCO), a school administered by the Uganda Ministry of Health, which trains high school graduates to become Psychiatric Clinical Officers. It is the only school of its kind in Eastern Africa.

As the national psychiatric referral, Butabika Hospital conducts mental health related research and offers support supervision countrywide.