Historically, mental health care has been a neglected part of the health system in Zambia, with services concentrated at provincial government hospitals and not at the primary care level.
Currently, Zambia has only one psychiatric hospital known as Chainama Hills Hospital which is based in the capital city of Lusaka. It was opened in the year 1962 as a national referral centre. The capacity of the hospital filled with about 500 beds divided into 380 general adults and 120 forensic. Years later small divisions begun to develop in seven provincial areas run by the clinical officers and psychiatric nurses (Ngungu & Beezhold, 2009).