Content warning: suicide, sexual abuse, domestic violence.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A year ago, Felicity* says she was at rock bottom.
The 40-year-old experienced childhood neglect, sexual abuse, rape and domestic violence over many years, and had been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I was in the foetal position crying most days. I couldn't function. I was scared of humans," she said.
"I thought I was a piece of shit, that I didn't deserve to be alive.
"But someone told me about Thirroul, and I chose to move to the Illawarra, and I chose to live. I thought this was my last chance to be alive - I either take my life, or I fight."
Over the past year, she has spent 14 weeks as a patient at Australia's first women's stand-alone, trauma-informed mental health service, which opened in Ramsay Health's former rehabilitation hospital at Thirroul in August 2022.
Trauma was something that happened to me, not something wrong with me and I learnt how to breathe, and how to physically manage what was happening in my brain.
- Felicity, in-patient
A 43-bed women's only unit, which also sees day patients, the clinic is designed to provide a safe environment where women can deal with trauma-related mental health disorders.
It mainly treats women who are survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse, but also those who have experienced other trauma, like veterans, refugees and car crash victims.
In its first 12 months, the clinic has treated 792 women - roughly half as in-patients and the other half as day patients.
Of the 399 inpatients, 342 were from NSW, and 57 travelled interstate to access the service.
Psychiatrist Dr Karen Williams, who conceived the idea for the trauma-informed hospital, said being able to offer treatment to nearly 800 people in the first year had been "phenomenal" but that she would like to see services of this kind expand in more place.
She said the clinic had to say no to a number of patients due to the high demand, and that all of the doctors working at the clinic with out-patients have had to close their books.
"We can't maintain services fro the amount of people who want to have ongoing care here," she said.
"We're all just packed, which is terrible, and shows how much there is a need for more of these sorts of services."
Dr Williams said it was difficult to quantify the full impact the hospital had made in its first year, as many of the best outcomes for patients were small personal victories.
"We are working with researchers on publishing data, but the kind of things that really matter to me is seeing my patients develop functionality in a way they never have before," she said.
"Some women can now go and get their hair cut when before they have never been able to let someone touch their hair, because their domestic violence perpetrator may have yanked their hair or pulled some of it out," she said.
"I've seen people retrain, get jobs, come off all of their medications. There have been women who have come off drugs and alcohol, have improvements in eating disorders.
"There have been people who can go out and buy coffee when they never could have done that, or sit in a coffee shop alone and read a book out in public, and there are women who can now go and get medical care, like pap smears, which they never could have done."
"We have also seen people who, thanks to their stay here, have been able to leave dangerous relationships."
Felicity said the clinic's approach to trauma and recovery had been "life changing", for her and stood in stark contrast to other treatment she'd had at mental health hospitals and psychiatric wards.
"It quite literally saved my life, and I don't think I'd be alive now without it," she said.
"When I got there I was a panic attack walking, but I was nurtured and loved.
"There's no bags searched, you can go out and have a coffee, you're empowered to have a voice, there's an idea of 'challenge by choice' - so you don't have to do anything if you're not ready."
She said the hospital's trauma-informed approach was pivotal to her recovery, and her ability to now be a full-time mother to her young son and thinking about doing paid work and helping others who have experienced trauma.
"What I learnt at Thirroul was that trauma was a brain injury, it wasn't that there was something wrong with me," she said.
"Trauma was something that happened to me, not something wrong with me and I learnt how to breathe, and how to physically manage what was happening in my brain."
She credits one particular nurse - Sarita - for being the person she could connect with and who allowed her to "borrow hope" and believe in her recovery.
"I learnt I wasn't crazy, that there was hope for me," she said.
"I found my identity, my body knows that it's safe, and I learnt that there was a place for me in society."
*Name has been changed.
National Crisis Services
- Lifeline - 13 11 14
- Blue Knot Helpline and Redress Support Service (For adult survivors of childhood trauma and abuse) - 1300 657 380
- 1800RESPECT (For people impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence and abuse) - 1800 737 732
- National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline - 1800 250 015
- Beyond Blue - 1300 22 4636.