Mental health unit for Nowra

Health Minister Nicola Roxon has announced plans to develop a 20-bed mental health unit at Shoalhaven Hospital, costing $18.5 million.

While the beds are classed as subacute, they will provide emergency and acute care, along with longer term stays.

Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District chief of psychiatry, Associate Professor James Oldham, said stays of up to three months would allow patients to benefit from a range of rehabilitation services not possible in an acute care setting.

“You get a chance to really recover their skills,” Professor Oldham said.

The longer stays would allow for more psychotherapy, more occupational therapy, and more time to address skills needed to cope with the pressures of daily life working with a multi-disciplinary team including a consultant psychiatrist, psychologists, psychiatric nurses and a range of therapists, he added.

Professor Oldham said the range of services provided at the centre was being designed specifically to meet the Shoalhaven’s needs.

The subacute beds are to be located in a separate building on Shoalhaven Hospital’s grounds, with each bed to be located in its own room with an en suite.

Those rooms would be separated into pods, with the design making it possible to separate individuals including those who were sexually vulnerable, or those who were particularly noisy and disruptive, Professor Oldham said.

Acting director of mental health services in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, Sue Karpik, said the stand alone “state of the art mental health unit” was to be purpose built and integrated into the hospital.

“It will be a very well-staffed facility,” she promised.

Mr Karpik said the unit would include day areas and therapy areas.

While a final site had yet to be selected, Ms Karpik said the unit would be opening about the end of 2013.

The Shoalhaven community has been fighting for several years to get improved mental health services, particularly after police were forced to spend many hours transporting people with mental health problems to Shellharbour for assessment.

Even Professor Oldham confirmed, “The Shoalhaven has had the short end of the stick in mental health services for a while.”

However he stressed there were “very skilled mental health workers” already in the region, adding the new mental health unit would work in with community mental health services and the unit at Shellharbour Hospital.