A new veteran mental health precinct will be located at Adelaide’s Glenside Health Service Campus, as the State Government prepares to close the Daw Park Repatriation Hospital.
The $15 million precinct, which will include the Centre for Excellence for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is part of the State Government’s Transforming Health plan which was announced earlier this year.
As part of the plan, the Daw Park Repatriation Hospital will be closed, including ward 17, which services returned veterans suffering from mental health illnesses.
The announcement has resulted in protests across Adelaide by a number of veterans, including a group which has been camped on the steps of Parliament House since early April.
Health Minister Jack Snelling said an advisory panel that included clinicians, veteran representatives and carers recommended the Glenside location as the best site for the new precinct.
“Glenside Health Service Campus is centrally located, can provide a private environment and has car parking, public transport links and access to recreational, community and garden spaces as well as other inpatient care provided on site,” he said.
“We need to make sure that we deal appropriately and our health system is well geared to look after the psychological scars that our returned service men and women come with.”
The portion of the campus dedicated to veterans’ mental health service will be renamed and have a separate access point to the main campus to provide a distinct area for veterans.
The reason that Glenside was closed in the first place was because of the stigma of mental health attached to being at Glenside.
Veteran, Augustinus Krikke
The new facility will have 24 beds.
Two buildings at the site will need to be demolished to make way for the new centre, which should be completed by 2017.
Veterans Affairs Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith said providing the best care possible for veterans with post traumatic stress was the most important factor in choosing a site for the new Centre for Excellence.
“The staff at the existing ward 17 at the repat do a fantastic job looking after our veterans, but as a Government we know we can do more to support those workers with new facilities and our veterans with state-of-the-art care,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.
“The new facility will provide world-class infrastructure that embraces innovation, takes full advantage of technology and medical advances and is flexible to meet the challenges of the future.”
Moving services to Glenside ‘a retrograde step’
But veteran Augustinus Krikke thinks moving mental health services to Glenside is a “retrograde step” and the “most ridiculous decision” he has ever heard.
“Putting a mental health facility at Glenside, firstly, is going back 20 years or more,” he said.
“The reason that Glenside was closed in the first place was because of the stigma of mental health attached to being at Glenside.
“They closed Glenside, simply because the word Glenside was associated with mental health conditions.”
An advisory panel was established in March to recommend an appropriate location for the facility.
Panel co-chair Veteran Associate Professor Susan Neuhaus said the Glenside campus met all requirements set out by the panel.
The repatriation hospital site will be redeveloped and the Government said it had received more than 30 expressions of interest in the site.