ShareNew mental health unit for high-risk patients opens in Sydney's east
The Forensic Hospital provides individualised care through modern clinical programs for people who have mental illness and have been involved with the criminal justice system, or who are at risk of such contact. The new Freshwater Unit is the first facility of its kind in NSW.
A purpose-built mental health Intensive Care Unit has been opened in Sydney to provide specialist mental health treatment and rehabilitation services for acutely unwell and high-risk patients involved with the criminal justice system.
Delivered as part of the NSW Government’s $700-million state-wide Mental Health Infrastructure Program, the new Freshwater Unit is located within the high-security grounds of the Forensic Hospital at Malabar, and is managed by Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network (Justice Health NSW).
The Forensic Hospital provides individualised care through modern clinical programs for people who have mental illness and have been involved with the criminal justice system, or who are at risk of such contact.
The hospital comprises of seven different units offering acute, high dependency, extended, long stay and intensive care services:
Austinmer Women – 17-bed acute unit
Austinmer Adolescent – Six-bed acute unit
Bronte – 33-bed high dependency and acute unit
Clovelly – 27-bed extended care unit
Dee Why – 32-bed long stay unit
Elouera – 20-bed unit
Freshwater – Five-bed intensive care unit
The new Freshwater Unit is the first facility of its kind in NSW, and the second forensic mental health intensive care unit in Australia, according to Justice Health NSW chief executive Wendy Hoey.
“The new facility has been purpose-built to meet the dynamic needs of our patient population and is designed to complement and enhance existing services within the Forensic Hospital,” Hoey says.
“Ensuring our patients, who have diverse and complex mental health needs, receive the highest quality care will give them the best chance of maintaining their own health and wellbeing when the time comes for them to safely return to the community.
“This is a positive step towards safer, less restrictive models of care, allowing those who are acutely unwell with challenging behaviour to have access to the right support and care.
“The community should have every confidence in the specialist doctors, nurses and allied health clinicians working within the new Freshwater Unit and the entire Forensic Hospital at Malabar, who are dedicated to helping our most vulnerable while also having regard to community safety.”
