WERRIBEE Mercy Hospital hopes funding from the state government will help keep mental health patients out of hospital beds and in the community.
As reported in the Weekly, Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge last week announced $6 million for the hospital over four years to improve access to community-based clinical treatments for western suburbs residents.
The money will be used to hire 10 community clinicians and one psychiatrist who will join the hospital’s community assessment teams, which cover Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay and Wyndham.
The new staff will treat patients in the community, reducing the need for them to visit the emergency department or be admitted to a hospital bed. The staff are also able to provide treatment to homeless people.
Mercy Health spokeswoman Jaclyn Bond said the funding ensured each of the hospital’s community assessment teams had 15 clinicians. “It will allow us to be more responsive to our community by increasing the number of people we see,” she said.
“By providing clinical treatment and follow-up management in the community there is greater capacity for us to assist people to recover from periods of mental illness and continue active lives in their local community.
“It will assist us to identify and treat people who are getting sick earlier, to work with their GPs and their families to reduce the need for those people to present to emergency departments or to need a hospital bed.”
Nicole Bartholomeuz, acting CEO of the Western Region Health Centre, which also provides mental health services, said
significant population growth across the western suburbs had stretched mental health services.
“Our Wyndham-based community mental health team [has] seen demand skyrocket over the past two years.”
