New unit opens at Graylands Hospital

11/2/07
A new 18-bed secure unit at Graylands Hospital will help reduce waiting times for mental health inpatients and ease pressure on Perth's busy emergency departments.
Health Minister Jim McGinty said the $5.5million Ellis Unit would provide 14 new acute inpatient beds and a four-bed assessment and holding area.
"The Ellis Unit will provide a safer and more modern environment to treat high-risk patients suffering from acute mental illness," Mr McGinty said.
"The 14 additional secure beds will reduce the incidence of patients having to wait in hospital emergency departments or in the community until a bed becomes available here at Graylands.
"The new secure assessment and observation area means that up to four patients can now be assessed for admission and monitored in safe and secure surroundings with specialist support from hospital staff.
"The unit will provide intensive one-on-one treatment for people with severe mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression."
North Metropolitan Area Mental Health Service executive director Dr Peter Wynn Owen said the Ellis Unit would be initially supported by a multidisciplinary team of 16 specialist mental health staff, including 14 nurses rostered over 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
Dr Wynn Owen said the new unit was designed in consultation with patients, clinicians and carers.
"There is a greater focus on privacy, better visiting space for families and a better layout for visual observation by staff in the unit," he said.
"A key feature is the availability of single bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, which gives more privacy for patients in a secure setting."
With an estimated one in five adults suffering a mental illness in their lifetime, the Minister said it was vital that more inpatient and community-based services were provided.
"The new Ellis Unit is one of a number of new facilities planned to meet the growing demand for community-based accommodation for people with a mental illness," he said.
Eighteen additional acute beds were recently opened at Graylands (the Fitzroy Intermediate Secure Unit) and Armadale Hospitals, there are nine new observation beds in metropolitan emergency departments and 16 intermediate care beds were opened at Hawthorn House late last year.
An additional 280 mental health staff have been employed in the last two years including mental health nurses, psychiatric registrars and psychiatrists.
The additional staff are working in Graylands, hospital emergency departments as well as in community-based services.
The opening of the Ellis Unit is a key element of the State Government's $173million Mental Health Strategy to provide more mental health beds.
Other initiatives under the strategy include:

• $65million for an additional 108 beds and the employment of 425 new staff;
• $65million to build an extra 400 community beds for mental health patients across the State;
• $23.6million for specialist mental health teams in emergency departments and extra holding beds in tertiary hospitals;
• $11million to expand mental health services for school aged children; and
• $8.7million to improve safety for mental health staff.

"The State Government has lifted total funding for mental health services to more than $340million in 2005-06, or nine per cent of the total health budget, making Western Australia one of the first States to achieve this level of funding," Mr McGinty said.
The new Graylands unit is named after Dr Arch Ellis who passed away in November 2004.
An esteemed doctor, surgeon, psychiatrist, health administrator, and war veteran, Dr Ellis was WA's Director of Mental Health Services from 1963 to 1977, and continued working as a psychiatrist with the Mental Health Service and Alcohol and Drug Authority until 1996.
He was a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and President from 1975 to 1976, Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators, and Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Forensic Science, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1979.
Minister's office - 9422 3000