Mental health centre recognised at Design Awards

A NEW mental health centre co-designed by consumers, carers, providers, and design experts has been highly commended at the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards.

The innovative and contemporary layout of Barwon Health’s new McKellar Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre received recognition for its design at the awards.

“We aimed for this centre to meet a person’s mental health, wellbeing and physical needs through a building design and model of care that is deliberately empowering, hope-inspiring and focused on improving a person’s quality of life,” Barwon Health’s program implementation manager Dr Rachel Tindall said.

The 16-bed centre will be fully operational and accepting patients by the end of this year.

It will offer the opportunity for state-of-the-art models of care to be developed and implemented, specifically for people aged 50 years and over.

Dr Tindall said the model of care included innovative approaches to individual and group therapy, staffing and restrictive interventions, which were available at the one location.

The new facility features internal courtyards and enclosed garden areas to provide areas for patients and staff to enjoy greenery and fresh air, while each room has been carefully considered from the perspectives of all who will use it, to make sure that all will experience the centre as therapeutic and hope-inspiring.

“A core co-design team, consisting of a clinician, a consumer, a carer, and a project manager, collaboratively decided on all decisions within designing the project,” Dr Tindall said.

“The value lay in integrating all perspectives, achieving a higher quality physical building, and a clearer connection between consumers, carers and the way the model of care was developed,”