‘I wish this was around when I was unwell’: mental health worker Steve

A “mouth-dropping” Australian-first urgent mental health care unit in Adelaide has the eyes of the nation on it.

STEVE is one of the very first and last faces mental health patients will see at Australia’s first urgent care centre, which opened in Adelaide two weeks ago.

The centre has so far diverted more than 60 mental health patients – the majority suffering severe suicidal ideation – from clogged up hospital emergency departments to receive quick, one-on-one support, assessment and wraparound services for safe return into the community.

“My mouth dropped,” says Steve when he first walked through the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre (UMHCC) before its official opening.

Steve, whose surname has not been published for professional safety reasons, is one of 12 peer support specialists working in the Grenfell St centre. It is he first of eight national facilities set to revolutionise critical mental health care and was recently visited by the Sunday Mail.

Peer Support Specialist Steve in the "Living Room" – a non-clinical alternative to the emergency department at Adelaide’s Urgent Mental Health Care Centre – the first in Australia. Picture: Russell Millard

“Oh how I wish this was around when I was unwell – I think it would have progressed my recovery significantly if I had this support around me,” he says.

Steve has battled against clinically diagnosed depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The 59-year-old mental health worker has had more than a dozen emergency department visits – some spent waiting for six hours.

“Emergency departments are noisy, crowded, there’s no time for empathy and they are stressful – they are not the best places for people suffering a mental health crisis,” he says.

He’s now part of the team leading the nations’ “gold standard” of urgent mental health care and he wants it to become normal practice. “I really feel for those people waiting hours in EDs for mental health care – we need more of these.”

From May – the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre on Grenfell Street, Adelaide, will be treating 18 people at a time to help ease ED demand. Picture: Keryn Stevens

The $14 million federally-funded centre, commissioner by the state government, is being run by not-for-profit group Neami National over four years.

It’s funded to support 18 people at a time from 12pm to 12am every day and has been specifically designed by those with lived experience, first responders and mental health experts.

There’s no security guards and no ambulance ramp at the front (there’s a rear lobby for first responders). Front door entry is directly into a neat, quiet and colourful hotel-like lobby where patients (called ‘guests’) can be received by their assigned peer support specialist, like Steve. But it’s in the “Living Room” where guests will spend most of their stay – on average about three to four hours.

The “Living Room” of the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre on Grenfell Street, Adelaide. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Here – in this big, open central space – there are 18 leather lounge recliners (no beds), a kitchen and white park-style picnic bench tables and lots of room to move. There’s a “rainbow room” for pets, a laundry and shower and locker facilities.

In this central hub, guests, by the side of peer supporters, family and friends, are physically and mentally assessed by specialists and a safety plan and support structure set up.

Neami National state manager SA Kim Holmes said most guests returned home with the support of family and friends, and/or referrals to treating psychologists, psychiatrists or GPs. Some will have intensive wrap around services to ensure they do not reach crisis point again and avoid the ED. Their stay is followed up over three consecutive days

Neami National state manager SA Kim Holmes at the nation’s first Urgent Mental Health Care Centre on Grenfell Street, Adelaide. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“This centre has provided so much hope because it is something so different to the lived experience of emergency departments for people who have and are living with mental illness needing quality urgent care on their darkest days,” said Ms Holmes.

Referral to the UMHCC at the moment is by ambulance, the state government’s mental health triage service and police. Walk-ins and referrals by other groups and specialists, like GPs will occur later in the year.