A new multi-million dollar mental health unit, focusing on a holistic recovery approach, has officially opened at the Joondalup Health Campus in Perth’s north.
Key points:
- The new facility more than doubles the capacity of the existing one
- It will focus more on therapy and be “less led by psychiatry”
- The project is part of a bigger expansion of Joondalup Health Campus
The new facility has 102 individual patient bedrooms, and double the capacity of the existing one.
The wards have been designed to separately accommodate young people aged 16-24, older adults and patients over the age of 65.
It will open in stages, with the first priority being the transition of the existing patients and staff from the old 47-bed facility to the new building.
“Making sure that we’ve got that quality and safety right and the staff understand the area, working on the floor space is really important,” Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said.
Facility to focus on therapy, recovery
Ms Sanderson, who is also the minister for mental health, said the new facility would be “less led by psychiatry” and undertake a more progressive model around recovery.
“It’s important that people have access to psychiatry, but they also need access to occupational therapists [and] social workers,” she said.
“Mental health nursing now plays a much bigger role [with a] focus on therapeutic and recovery rather than just a medical model. So this facility enables that.”
The new facility features treatment rooms, a gym and an education facility.
It also includes several interior courtyard spaces to allow patients access to the outdoors and has its own kitchen, which will serve patients in several shared dining spaces.
“We’re moving away from that sort of ‘inpatient medicate, discharge’ much more to a ‘whole of person’ recovery model,” Ms Sanderson said.
Project part of bigger picture: Premier
Premier Roger Cook said the facility had been part of Labor’s vision for mental health services in the northern suburbs “for some years”.
“It was part of our 2013 election commitments and it’s great to see it now brought to fruition as part of our ongoing expansion of the Joondalup Hospital,” he said.
“The modern, thoughtfully designed facility will meet the requirements for the safe and secure treatment of people requiring mental health care and deliver patient areas that enhance care and wellbeing.”
The project is part of a bigger $269.4 million expansion of Joondalup Health Campus, co-funded by the state and federal governments.
The new facility brings the total number of mental health beds in public hospitals in WA to 700.