New mental health clinic opens in western Melbourne as demand surges

A new mental health facility has opened in western Melbourne as authorities scramble to service the region’s booming population.

The 21-bed Sunshine Clinic Private Hospital in St Albans has replaced the Sunshine Private Hospital, which entered voluntary administration last year after just 14 months of operation.

Sunshine Clinic chief executive Joy Schaffner said the mental health service on Furlong Road was needed as the Brimbank municipality lacked a similarly specialised private provider.

The two closest were in Werribee and Essendon, she said, while the nearby public hospital focused on more acute mental crises.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is the access to mental health services,” Schaffner said. “Many people in the west are currently travelling to inner-city areas to seek private mental health care.”

Ahead of the West of Melbourne Economic Development Alliance’s (WoMEDA) summit last month, key players in health and infrastructure told The Age the Allan government needed to urgently invest in extra mental and community health services alongside the west’s existing pipeline of major new hospitals.

Another webinar on Thursday will examine summit outcomes as the region continues to grapple with rapid population growth that has stretched services.

A report by the North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network, published last year, found Brimbank had the highest mental health need of 13 local government areas surveyed.

Schaffner said the new Sunshine Clinic would focus on patients with low-to-moderate mental health needs, diagnosing and treating illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and addiction problems.

The new mental health service could eventually grow to house 51 beds.

Australian Unity owns the $140 million building where the Sunshine Clinic will operate and is still looking to re-let floors for surgery after the collapse of Sunshine Private Hospital last year.

Chris Smith, the head of healthcare property for Australian Unity, was confident the new mental health clinic could succeed under a new model that split the hospital’s previous two functions into separate tenancies.

“We’ve had a short-term, I suppose, aberration,” he said.

Smith also pointed out that Australian Unity had purchased land near the future Melton Hospital as private healthcare options were even more limited further west, according to an internal analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

The Age also reported in September that Greater Melbourne has more than five times as many psychiatrists per capita compared to the City of Melton, and seven times as many psychologists working in community mental health.

However, a state government spokesperson pointed to 10 recent projects that addressed mental health in Melbourne’s west, including new wellbeing locals built in Sunshine and Melton.

Two more of these hubs – built in response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System – are also slated for Werribee and Footscray this year, although the broader rollout was delayed last year due to workforce shortages.

“Victoria is leading the nation in mental health reform and Melbourne’s west continues to be a major focus of our investments,” a government spokesperson said.

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