Dandenong community welcomes new mental health facility

1 August 2011

Residents in the south-east of Melbourne will now have access to better mental health services thanks to the completion of the first stage of a $69 million redevelopment of Dandenong Hospital's mental health services.

Visiting the site, Minister for Mental Health Mary Wooldridge said the new and expanded state-of-the-art facilities would double the number of mental health beds in Dandenong, improve the quality of care and address the growing demand for mental health services.

The redevelopment will increase inpatient beds from 77 to 120 including acute adult, aged and secure extended care beds.

In addition, a further 30 residential community beds in the Dandenong mental health services catchment area are currently being developed to improve capacity in the treatment and care of people with a mental illness in community settings.

Stage one of the development, totalling $21 million, provides 50 new adult acute inpatient beds.

The new facilities have a modern and innovative design and maximise natural light with better access to outdoor courtyard areas.

Video transcript

Shelly Park, Chief Executive, Southern Health

I think this is indeed a great day for the people of the south-east of Melbourne. We know that mental health illness is one of the greatest challenges facing our community and this development will go a long way to assist us to meet the mental health client’s needs of the community. This state of the art building replaces the very outdated mental health and patient acute unit and provides first class purpose built facilities of which we should all be incredibly proud.

The expansion of mental health services at Dandenong will allow us to treat more mental health patients and a more appropriate warm and inviting environment. What a fantastic facility, well done and congratulations.

Minister for Mental Health, Mary Wooldridge MP

It’s really important that we continue to recognise that as the population grows, as demand pressures grow, the need for mental health support services grows with that and we have to always be anticipating where that is going to go and making sure we have the services to be able to support that and this redevelopment here at Dandenong Hospital is such a critical part of making that a reality. It was really important to see what has been and what is going to be the future because the contrast is absolutely significant. Everyone who comes will feel very different about the experience and I am confident that the impact that will have for people with a mental illness will be incredibly positive in terms of their care, their treatment and their recovery, which is of course the objective.

I am very please to officially open stage one of the Dandenong Hospital Mental Health Redevelopment with 50 inpatient adult beds and wish both the staff and of course the community who will be utilising the services, all the best for the years ahead.

This is such a fantastic new facility, it’s been built with a recovery focus in mind so that people with a mental illness coming in feel warm, feel welcome, feels it’s home like environment and that will positively contribute to them addressing their mental illness and recovering for better outcomes in the future.