Amanda once felt intense anxiety when driving into work, but after several years of frequent assaults, her dread has morphed into anger.<\/p>\n
“I’d never cut myself before, but at that point in time, I didn’t want to be there,” said the 50-year-old.<\/p>\n
“Once I was moved to a quieter area, it was instantly better.”<\/p>\n
Brooke’s experience in August is not unique for staff and patients at Bendigo Health, and now management is calling for a separate ED area designed to suit people with mental illness.<\/p>\n
“Emergency departments are loud, bright, noisy, chaotic \u2014 less than ideal environments if you’re already feeling distressed and disturbed,” Bendigo Health mental health director Phil Tune said.If you or anyone you know needs help:Suicide Call Back Service<\/a> on 1300 659 467Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN<\/a>\u00a0on 13 92 76Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 551 800Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890ReachOut<\/a> at au.reachout.com<\/a>MensLine Australia<\/a> on 1300 789 978QLife 1800 184 527<\/a><\/p>\n There are currently six emergency department hubs for mental health, alcohol and other drugs across Victoria \u2014 five in Melbourne and one in Geelong.<\/p>\n “The hubs are calmer and they’re more suited to people with acute mental illness,” Dr Tune said.<\/p>\n They are also designed to fast-track care and provide specialised treatment from trained staff.<\/p>\n Growing pressure on local services<\/p>\n Figures from Bendigo Health show 2,151 patients with mental health and\/or drug issues presented to the emergency department in 2024, up from 1,859 the year before.<\/p>\n So far this year, the department has seen an average of 46 patients with mental health and\/or drug issues a week and is on track to exceed last year’s numbers.<\/p>\n On an average night, Emergency Care Assistance Team (ECAT) nurses can care for patients who are experiencing a range of issues, from psychotic breakdowns to someone who has swallowed knives or batteries, and people who have attempted suicide.<\/p>\n Mental health nurses often attend to people in a busy cubicle area where there is little privacy \u2014 one thin curtain separating patients from the noise and activity of the emergency department.<\/p>\n Last month, ECAT nurses Skye and Steve, whose surnames have been withheld to protect their privacy, treated a patient who had threatened to suicide.<\/p>\n Steve speaks with a patient who attempted suicide at Bendigo Health’s emergency department. (ABC Central Victoria: Sarah Lawrence)<\/p>\n It was the first time the person, aged in their 40s, had gone to hospital in poor mental health.<\/p>\n “They were sitting with two police and two ambulance officers, hunched over and crying,” Skye said.<\/p>\n Mental health nurse Laurie, whose surname has also been withheld to protect his privacy, said the rise of drug use over the past decade had made conditions difficult in the ED, where someone with a broken arm could be sitting next to someone on drugs.<\/p>\n “It’s the association of violence and aggression that comes with drugs \u2014 towards us, towards emergency services and towards themselves,” Laurie said.<\/p>\n “It’s not just people from lower socio-economic areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I’ve seen business people who have used ice and they’re totally out of control, angry and aggressive.”<\/p>\n Bendigo nurses say conditions are volatile in the public hospital emergency department. (ABC Central Victoria: Sarah Lawrence)<\/p>\n Urgent call for more hubs<\/p>\n Health and Community Services Union state secretary Paul Healey is a former mental health nurse.<\/p>\n He said mental health presentations had risen 5 per cent in Victoria over the past year.<\/p>\n Mr Heale said regional Victoria urgently needed more emergency department specialised hubs.<\/p>\n Paul Healey says Victoria’s suicide rate is almost higher than its road toll. (Supplied: Health and Community Services Union)<\/p>\n “We’ve got a suicide rate in Victoria that is almost double the road toll, and it doesn’t seem to be going down,” he said.<\/p>\n “We’ve got an epidemic of anxiety and depression in young people, and we’re not building the services fast enough.<\/p>\n “The ones in Melbourne have about six beds and demand is already outstripping supply. But they’ve been really helpful to get people seen quicker.”<\/p>\n In a statement, the Victorian government said funding had been granted for planning work to establish mental health hubs in existing emergency departments at Bendigo and Shepparton.<\/p>\n “The Allan Labor government remains focused on recommendation eight of the Royal Commission [into Victoria’s Mental Health System], which recommended that each region has at least one emergency department that can deliver specialist mental health and alcohol and other drug treatment,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Brooke overdosed on prescription medication during a mental health breakdown, she found the Bendigo Health emergency department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,21032,118672,118674,62398,137,7963,514,118673,118676,118675,14248],"class_list":{"0":"post-185907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bendigo-health","11":"tag-bendigo-hospital","12":"tag-drug-use","13":"tag-emergency-department","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-ice","16":"tag-mental-health","17":"tag-mental-health-ed","18":"tag-mental-health-hub","19":"tag-mental-health-nurses","20":"tag-suicide"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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