The School of Psychiatric Clinical Officers, Butabika is a brain child of the department of psychiatry, Makerere University, College of Health Sciences. The institution is government aided and under the ownership of the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The training of Psychiatric Clinical Officers (PCO’s) as a post basic course of two years was started in 1979 and was prompted by the need to train a mid-level cadre of a clinician who would breach the gap experienced by limited Psychiatrists in the delivery of Mental Health Care in Uganda.
Initially, the training was aimed at giving Registered Psychiatric Nurses clinical skills in managing the mentally ill patients. In 2003, with intent to increase the intakes to this programme, other cadres of health workers namely Registered General Nurses, Clinical Officer (Medical), Registered Comprehensive Nurses, Occupational Therapists were allowed to pursue this course.
In 2012, the Direct Entrant Course in Clinical Psychiatry was started. This was aimed to attract candidates from S.6 and those with certificates from medical courses. After studying for three years candidates are awarding a diploma in Clinical Psychiatry.