Construction on a new 16-bed short stay mental health service is about to reach its latest milestone and is on track to provide contemporary mental health support services in Adelaide's North from early next year.
The $22 million Crisis Stabilisation Centre, being delivered by the Malinauskas Labor government, will provide support with a stay of up to three nights for people experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidal distress. The service was co-designed with people who have lived experience of crisis and distress and will be open 24/7.
This construction supports the State Government's investment to build more than 130 new mental health beds so patients can receive the care they need, while freeing up emergency departments.
The Crisis Stabilisation Centre will be located on the second floor of the Oldham Road building at Elizabeth Vale where it will form part of the growing Playford Health Precinct. Work on the building's second storey is ready to begin, with the roof steel to go into place at the end of this month.
Once complete, the 16 beds will be accompanied by counselling rooms, a family lounge, and communal social areas. It is designed to be homelike, providing a therapeutic environment for people to get the mental health support they need, with access to lived-experience peer practitioners alongside mental health clinicians, Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing workers, and multicultural workers.
LELAN, South Australia's independent peak body for people with lived experience of mental distress, has also been involved in the centre's physical design and Philosophy of Care development.
The Northern Adelaide Medicare Mental Health Centre will relocate from Gillingham Road, Elizabeth to the new building's ground floor. This service is jointly state and Federal Government funded, offering free, walk-in mental health support every day of the year with no referral or Medicare card needed.
The tender process for a non-government service provider for the Crisis Stabilisation Centre has commenced. The project is on track for its planned clinical opening in early 2026.
As put by Nadia Clancy
The Malinauskas Labor Government is committed to improving mental health care in South Australia, which is why we are opening more than 130 new mental health beds.
This Crisis Stabilisation Centre will be vital in providing urgent, targeted support to South Australians facing a mental health crisis or challenge.
It will reduce demand on emergency departments by providing best-practice crisis care in a less clinical environment for people who might otherwise have been admitted to hospital, while ensuring care is accessible, effective, and responsive to the evolving needs of the community.
As put by Department of Health and Wellbeing Executive Director of Mental Health Strategy and Planning Liz Prowse
The model of care represented in the design for this centre is the result of extensive engagement with the local community, and especially people with lived experience of mental health crisis and distress.
The centre will provide compassionate, trauma informed and culturally safe care that is centred on the needs of the person.
People will be able to stay for up to three nights and will have access to a range of supports, including peer specialists, and the Centre will work in partnership with a range of services to ensure people are well connected with supports in the community.
As put by LELAN Chief Executive Ellie Hodges
The Crisis Stabilisation Centre once established will be an important service for people experiencing mental health distress and crisis. People will be able to access greater support during their hardest times without having to go to an emergency department or hospital ward.
The model for the service is more contemporary than any we have elsewhere in South Australia, providing a vision and beacon for how care and mental health support can be done differently.
This will be most visible through the high ratio of peer workers within the Crisis Stabilisation Centre, and because people with lived experience of using services have been involved in all aspects of the design from the start.
As put by Northern Adelaide Local Health Network Chief Executive Karen Puvogel
The Crisis Stabilisation Centre will form a vital part of the Lyell McEwin Hospital Precinct.
The ability to integrate these new beds into our existing models of care will ensure we can provide an emergency pathway to access mental health services in a far more appropriate way than through the existing medical system.
