About PILL

PILL is dedicated to promoting optimal physical and mental health in infants, children, youth, their families, and communities for healthy psychosocial functioning and development. Currently, PILL has a multidisciplinary team of approximately 250 professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, general physicians, pediatricians, biostatisticians, social workers, lady health workers, traditional birth attendants, nurses, community supervisors, community volunteers, experts from public health, business administration, health economics, information technology and media sciences.

With such a diverse team, PILL now has offices in all four provinces of Pakistan and is working with national as well as international collaborators and works across all DSM-5 divisions such as depression, anxiety, maternal and paternal depression, dementia, breast cancer survivors, prisoners’ mental health, at risk mental state and severe mental illnesses like psychosis and bipolar disorders in low resource settings. Embedding our work within the existing Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO)/health infrastructure and in the local academic research community is one of our strengths. PILL has also published its work in high impact peer-reviewed national and international journals.

Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning (PILL) was established in Islamabad in 1998. It was a unique concept by Major General (R) Ishrat Husain (late) to promote mental health of a common man. He was an eminent psychiatrist, a great visionary and well ahead of his times who believed in the holistic approach by applying integrated physical, mental and spiritual interventions to achieve good mental health and well-being. He believed that both physical and mental health, together serves the important role in positive child development and better family environment which results in a confident and successful future generation. General (R) Ishrat, also had a major role in the development of psychiatry across Pakistan. Pakistan Armed Forces, acknowledging his efforts awarded him the Sitara-e Imtiaz (Military) in 1978 and Hilal-e-Imtiaz (the highest award for meritorious services) in 1984. After he passed away, in recognition of his services to the field psychiatry and psychology, the institute was renamed as Ishrat Husain Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning.