$5.5m funding for youth mental health services in Sydney’s west

A UNIQUE program targeting a mental health condition aff­ecting young people will be rolled out at five local health districts in Western Sydney, including Nepean Hospital at Penrith.

A UNIQUE program targeting a mental health condition aff­ecting young people will be rolled out to Western Sydney.

The state government will expand new specialised Gold Card clinics to emergency departments at five local health districts, including Nepean Hospital at Penrith.

The $5.5 million extra funding to treat personality disorders, which affect 6.5 per cent of the population, is part of the Project Air Strategy, designed to diagnose patients early and quicken their recovery.

Nepean Blue Mountains mental health general manager Cathy Crowe said the clinics provided “rapid” treatment.

“We’re managing them with specialists from the time of their presentation to the service,” she said.

“I think it’s a great initiative for a group of people who are quite stigmatised.”

Nepean Hospital at Penrith will roll out a program to help youth affected by mental health conditions. Picture: AAP Image/Justin Sanson

NSW Mental Health Minister Tanya Davies said personality disorders represented 25 per cent of mental health admissions to EDs.

Since Project Air was introduced in 2011, the average hospital stay time has declined from 13.5 days to 4.5 days.

“We’re leading the nation in this particular strategy to tackle personality disorders,” she told The Sunday Telegraph.

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Symptoms of personality disorder, which manifests in teenagers and young adults, include difficulty controlling emotions and managing rel­ationships with other people.

The Project Air Strategy is to be operational across the state’s 15 local health districts by 2020.

Its founder, Professor Brin Grenyer, said the new funding was “recognition” the government was listening. “There is no drug to treat personality disorders, there is no medical intervention. It’s psychological treatment that works,” he said.

“A lot of people recover and live meaningful lives.”