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Mental Health Patients Forced Into Motels, CaravansMental Health patients in Gippsland are being forced to stay overnight in motels and caravan parks because of a lack of acute mental health beds in eastern Victoria. By Peter Hall - 17th September 2004 - Back to News Gippsland MP Peter Hall raised the issue as a matter of urgency in Parliament this week and has called for the Minister for Health to undertake an immediate assessment of the situation.
He called for a commitment from the State Government to improve the situation at the Latrobe Regional Hospital mental health unit and provide more beds urgently.
Mr Hall told Parliament that just this week he had spoken to "a very distraught psychiatric nurse" who outlined the extremely difficult circumstances that she and her colleagues are working under.
"She works in the Flynn unit at the Latrobe Regional Hospital, which is a 25-bed unit catering for those with severe mental illnesses.
"These are the only such beds east of Dandenong, and as well as there being no specific drug and alcohol unit in the region, one can well imagine that the demand for these beds is extremely high. In fact there is always an over demand for these beds."
During the day there are "regularly 30 or so patients in the particular unit", he said, well in excess of the facility’s capacity.
"I am told that at night those patients who are unable to occupy one of the 25 beds spend their night in a local motel or caravan park if motels are not available.
"This is a far from satisfactory situation for both the patients concerned and for other people staying in those motels and caravan parks."
He added that the reason people were admitted to the Unit in the first place was because they should be supervised 24 hours a day.
Mr Hall also expressed his concern for the staff.
"With overcrowding at the facility there is tremendous stress on the nurses looking after those people. I am informed that currently there are four nurses off work due to physical injuries inflicted on them by some of the patients in this particular unit.
"Caring for psychiatric patients is a difficult task at the best of times, but their task is being made doubly difficult by the inadequate facilities available."
Mr Hall said there was "no doubt" that the region east of Melbourne and Gippsland required more acute mental health beds. He called on the Minister to look into the situation "as a matter of urgency."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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