National Institute of Mental Health

National Institute of Mental Health

Agency overview
Formed	April 15, 1949; 75 years ago (1949-04-15)
Headquarters	Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Annual budget	$1.63 billion (2020)
Agency executives	Joshua A. Gordon[1], Director Shelli Avenevoli, Deputy Director
Parent agency	National Institutes of Health
Website	www.nimh.nih.gov

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research.

NIMH is the largest research organization in the world specializing in mental illness. Joshua A. Gordon is the current director of NIMH.^[2] The institute was first authorized by the U.S. government in 1946, when then President Harry Truman signed into law the National Mental Health Act, although the institute was not formally established until 1949.^[3][4]

NIMH is a $1.5 billion enterprise, supporting research on mental health through grants to investigators at institutions and organizations throughout the United States and through its own internal (intramural) research effort.^{[citation needed]} The mission of NIMH is "to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure."^[5]

In order to fulfill this mission, NIMH "must foster innovative thinking and ensure that a full array of novel scientific perspectives are used to further discovery in the evolving science of brain, behavior, and experience. In this way, breakthroughs in science can become breakthroughs for all people with mental illnesses."^[6]