Frenchs Forest: Push for 96-bed private hospital to tackle mental health on northern beaches

Planning bureaucrats are being urged to fast track approval for a new private mental health hospital on the northern beaches amid rising rates of mental illness.

A push is on for planning bureaucrats to fast track a proposed 96-bed private mental health hospital to meet a growing demand for treatment on the northern beaches.

Developers, CK Property Group, say the Northern Beaches Health Hub at Frenchs Forest will slow increasing local rates of suicide and self-harm, especially among young people.

Mental health groups and people with mental illness have thrown their support behind the $50 million facility, which the developer says will meet “high level local unmet demands” for a treatment centre.

Figures collected by the NSW Suicide Monitoring System found that the number of suspected deaths by suicide reported in NSW from January 1 to September 30, 2021, was 687. More than half of all suspected deaths by suicide occurred among those aged between 25 and 54.

Between January and September 2020, 23 people took their own lives on the northern beaches.

A development application for a 6-storey private hospital on a former warehouse site in Tilley Lane, close to Northern Beaches Hospital, was approved in 2017, but the developer now wants to alter the DA to allow for an 8-storey building dedicated to in-house and outpatient mental health treatment.

An artist's impression the roof terrace at a proposed private mental health hospital at Frenchs Forest. Picture: CK Property Group

CK Property Group has applied to for a “rapid assessment” of the amended DA through the NSW Government’s State Significant Development process.

It has provided authorities with a consultant’s report which suggested there was an under supply of 145 mental health beds in the proposed hospital’s catchment area that includes the northern beaches and parts of the North Shore.

The new plans include 80 private patient rooms with ensuite, as well as a rooftop garden; ground floor cafe, gym; protected “healing garden” “reflective sitting nooks”.

“Once approved, the purpose-built mental health facility is set to provide up to 96 beds to help prevent and deal with suicide and self-harm cases and ensure communities have access to the care they need, when they need it,” CK Property said in a statement.

“There’s perhaps never been a more urgent time of need for additional mental health

beds.

“It’s imperative that the proposal is approved as swiftly as possible to help free up much needed Emergency Department beds and to help save lives.”

The facility has been supported by youth preventative mental health support group, batyr.

Its CEO Nic Brown said disruption to key life events and education had pushed social isolation and distress to higher rates “than ever”.

“Right now, demand for acute mental health services is at a high, while emergency department

presentations and ambulance attendances for suicidal and self-harm behaviours have also increased over the past year,” Mr Brown said.

“It’s important that additional resources are invested in a timely manner to address this and prevent any future risks in our community”.

The site in Tilley Lane for a proposed 96-bed private mental health hospital at Frenchs Forest. Picture: Thomson Adsett Architects

Alana Mai Mitchell, who has been hospitalised five times and now takes medication to manage her schizophrenia, said having ready access to a health facility was important for people with mental illness.

Ms Mitchell, 34, said she had experienced being at a health facility a long way from her home. She only saw her family, from the Central Coast, twice in three weeks when she was in a facility in Sutherland several years ago.

“It’s very isolating,” Ms Mitchell, who has written a memoir “Being Brave: From Trauma To Joy”, said on Tuesday.

Alana Mai Mitchell, who has been hospitalised five times with a mental illness, said it was important for people to have ready access to a mental health treatment facility. Picture: Richard Dobson

“It’s so important to your recovery to have access to your community and your network of family and friends.

“It can make such a difference to have people close by offering encouragement and support.”

A Planning Department spokesman said that the developers had already benefited from the NSW Government’s Rapid Assessment Framework, set up to speed up the examination of major projects, but they still needed to address some industry-specific assessment requirements.

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