The National Center for Mental Health is dedicated to delivering preventive, curative and rehabilitative mental health care services. It is categorised as Special Research Training Center and Hospital under Department of Health on January 30, 1987. The leading mental health care facility in the country, NCMH provides a comprehensive range of preventive, curative and rehabilitative mental health services. It has an authorized bed capacity of 4,200 patients and a daily inpatient average of 3,000 patients. It serves an average of 56,0000 outpatients per year.

Most of NCMH's patients are from Metro Manila and nearby provinces in Region III and IV. As a national resource, NCMH also caters to patinets from other regions of the country, especially forensic cases referred by the courts of law. Treatment of about 87% of inpatients belonging to classess C and D are subsidized by NCMH.