Box Hill Hospital to get new mental health unit amid Royal Commission
People struggling with mental illness and addiction will receive care at a new Box Hill Hospital unit designed to treat both problems. It’s part of a $19.1 million investment to help upgrade Victoria’s mental health services.
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A new mental health unit designed to specially co-treat mental health and addiction issues is coming to Box Hill Hospital.
The nine new beds will significantly boost the hospital’s capacity to care for mental health patients, with the hospital having the state’s lowest rate of beds for mental health patients for the area’s population.
The State Government today announced it is putting $6.3 million towards creating the new Box Hill unit, as part of a new $19.1 million investment to help upgrade Victoria’s mental health services and to help people better access the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.
Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said Box Hill Hospital had asked for the “ground breaking” unit, which would integrate mental health services with detoxification services.
“What this unit does, is in an acute setting, for the first time, brings together the combined alcohol and drug addiction with mental health services, in a holistic way,” he said.
Box Hill Hospital mental health program director Lisa Shaw-Stuart said mental health and addiction issues were often co-occurring in patients.
“Most of our consumers have both,” she said.
“So managing them separately is not the right model of care.”
She said staff were very excited about the “much-needed additional mental health beds”, particularly because Box Hill Hospital had the lowest rate of beds for mental health patients per capita across Victoria.
At the moment the hospital has 25 beds for mental health patients and eight beds for patients facing addiction, while Maroondah hospital has 50 beds for mental health patients.
The new unit, which is expected to open in March, will be co-located with the hospital’s existing ward for drug and alcohol patients on the ground floor of the hospital.
Ms Shaw-Stuart said an old, disused ward was being refurbished to make way for the new unit, which would be able to service a lot of patients in Melbourne’s east, with the typical length of stay for each patient being about eight days.
The unit will create the need for about 24 extra staff at the hospital, including nurses, doctors and allied health staff.
The funding for Box Hill comes after the Royal Commission determined mental health was a “high priority” in the suburb after meeting with people living and working there in May.
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The State Government is putting $2.8 million of the $19.1 million towards mental health organisations to help them reach out to more people and hear more voices for the Royal Commission.
It’s waiting to hear the Commission’s findings and recommendations when the interim report is delivered next month.
Mr Foley said he expected a “substantial number of further reform and investment announcements” to come off the back of the findings, across a whole range of areas.
“We know that there’s more to be done, and even though we’re committed to improving the system while we await the interim report next month from the Royal Commission, we would fully expect the Royal Commission would set a challenging pathway for reform in all aspects of the mental health system.”