The state government is giving Victorians the mental health care they need closer to home, with the new Sunshine Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre now complete.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt officially opened the new facility at Sunshine Hospital, with the first patients set to be admitted this month.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System made it clear that Victoria needed more acute, hospital-based mental health beds across the state to give all Victorians the care, treatment and support they deserve.
The new 24/7 centre which features 52 acute hospital-based beds delivers on this key recommendation. The centre is part of the state Government’s $801 million Mental Health Beds Expansion Program, which is delivering 260 new mental health beds across Victoria.
The new beds will reduce pressure on the Sunshine Hospital emergency department and give Victorians experiencing acute mental illness access to urgent treatment in a specialised, safe, and high-quality setting.
Multidisciplinary care will be provided by psychiatrists, mental health clinicians and nurses for diagnoses like schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar and severe personality disorders, and severe depression or anxiety.
Designed in consultation with people with lived experience of the mental health system, the facility features sensory rooms, de-escalation rooms, internal courtyards and enclosed garden areas, staff and family lounges, and treatment rooms.
It is estimated the centre will provide more than 18,900 days of care to more than 1,150 more people every year.
Ms Allan said you should be able to get the mental health care you need, close to home without leaving your community or local support network.
“We haven’t wasted a minute delivering these facilities, because we know lives depend on it,” she said.
Koroit MP Luba Grigorovitch said having this facility in the heart of the west is going to make a big difference for people in our community experiencing mental illness.
