The Richmond Fellowship (RF) was started in the year 1959 in UK by Ms. Elly Jansen and today RF organizations are established in more than 30 countries providing effective rehabilitation services to people recovering from severe mental health problems. The Richmond Fellowship is the world’s largest network of mental health rehabilitation service providers on the therapeutic community model as a rehabilitative effort for severe mental illness. The RFS has been in the forefront of psychosocial rehabilitation in the country. It has been a pioneer in establishing the importance of looking beyond the purely medical model and demonstrating the efficacy of non-pharmacological methods as a vital and necessary ingredient in helping people to re-integrate to normal life.

The impact that this learning has had on successive generations of mental health professionals is perhaps impossible to articulate.

As an organization that has from the very beginning involved not only as mental health service provider, but also caregivers and service users, the RFS has historically been using a participative model of thinking, a facet that has in later years seen to be increasingly important.

Interestingly, what is called psychosocial rehabilitation has moved in many different ways in the last few decades. It includes certainly the therapeutic community models, but also looks at various diverse ways of working in and for the community. Internationally, the journey of the RFS itself has also been fascinating, as different bits of the RFS across the world have evolved very differently.

Founded in Bangalore in 1986, Richmond Fellowship Society (India) – RFS(I), is India’s only National-level Non-Governmental Organization working in the area of Psychosocial Rehabilitation for those suffering from Chronic Mental Illness. The Richmond Fellowship Society (India) – RFS(I) is also a “Not for Profit” organization and a registered society under the Societies’ Registration Act (1860) – a charity that rehabilitates the mentally ill, espouses their cause, and trains individuals in psychosocial rehabilitation.

The RFS(I) is one of the founder members of the Richmond Fellowship Asia Pacific Forum (RF ASPAC), started in the year 1993, that comprises RF facilities in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.