A NEW mental health service for Rockingham is a step closer to reality after Mind Australia was awarded the contract for the facility.
Mind Australia will deliver mental health counselling and ancillary treatment services at the facility as part of the five-year contract worth $5.7 million, with opening scheduled for September this year.
Mental Health Minister Andrea Mitchell said Mind would partner with South Metropolitan Health Services in a partnership that she believed offered value for money.
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READ NOW“This is an innovative model that is a further example of the public-private partnerships that provides West Australians with the best value and outcomes for their healthcare dollar,” she said.
The minster said the new facility would provide recovery oriented services in a residential style setting would hopefully quell the demands being placed on hospital care.
“The provision of adequate community beds and the strengthening of appropriate services in the community are crucial to reducing inappropriate and therefore excess demand for acute hospital care,” she said.
The facility will use the ‘step up, step down’ model; step up involves people who are dealing with a change in mental health while step down is for those transitioning back to life in the community after undergoing treatment.
It is the second ‘step up, step down’ facility in the State following the opening of a Joondalup centre in May 2013.