Crisafulli government dumps child mental health hub

The Queensland LNP government has scrapped a new purpose-built clinic for children’s mental health in Yeronga, despite months ago putting aside more than $3 million for it to go ahead.

The Labor government announced in 2020 that an $8.5 million Child and Youth Community Health Hub would be built to house the Child and Youth Mental Health Service and a service to address eating disorders.

The clinics moved temporarily from their old sites in Yeronga and Greenslopes to Mount Gravatt while the new Yeronga hub was built – a project that suffered delays during the COVID period.

But this week staff were informed the purpose-built hub would be scrapped, and the mental health clinic could not move back to its original location in an old Queenslander on Park Road at Yeronga.

The news came after the Crisafulli government allocated $3.1 million in the 2025-26 budget, in June, for the Yeronga hub.

Under the LNP’s plan, services would be run from Sanders Street in Upper Mount Gravatt, which would receive a new fit-out with 16 patient rooms, and at Taringa, with four patient rooms.

The government claimed it scrapped the Yeronga site because it blew out to more than four times its original price tag, to $39 million.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the project was “secretly downgraded to a quarter of its original size”, and had been “bungled right from the start”.

“It would not have been delivered until 2027 – almost eight years after it was promised,” Nicholls said.

But Labor MP Mark Bailey, the opposition health spokesman whose seat covers Yeronga, described the move as “secretive and suss”, and said he had not been informed.

“What’s clear here is that Premier Crisafulli has broken two promises by cutting this service,” he said.

“He said he’d bring projects in on time and on budget, which he’s clearly broken if there’s such an increase in cost, and secondly he said he wouldn’t cut health services.

“We’re going to have an empty, vacant for god knows how long with this site at Yeronga, because they’ve cut this rebuild which is desperately needed.”

Bailey said families coping with complex issues would now have to travel further to access the critical services.

The Child and Youth Mental Health Service helps children up to the age of 18 and their families with complex mental health needs.

Many clients are struggling with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, school refusal, psychosis, suicidal or self-harming behaviours, or trauma.

Nicholls said the state government’s new plan would deliver more patient rooms for the Child and Youth Mental Health and eating disorder services “from two convenient locations, in Upper Mount Gravatt and Taringa, bringing care closer to home”.

Those leasing options were proposed as a temporary measure during construction in May 2024, and had been deemed suitable for ongoing use.

The plan will cost $4.4 million for “decanting” (temporarily moving people and equipment out for construction), fit-out and leasing.

The first-year leasing cost will be about $600,000.

The Yeronga hub plan would have featured 17 patient rooms, whereas the new plan includes 20 patient rooms – 16 in Upper Mount Gravatt and four in Taringa.

The LNP has a history of controversial changes to youth mental health services.

The former Newman LNP government closed the residential Barrett Adolescent Centre at Wacol in January 2014, and within eight months, three high-risk teenagers died.

The Palaszczuk government opened a new adolescent centre, Jacaranda Place, with a mix of residential care and day programs, in 2020.

With Matt Dennien

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