This Minns Labor Government is transforming mental health care in Kempsey, with two new initiatives improving access to critical mental health support.
A free, walk-in mental health service has today opened its doors on Wide Street, offering accessible, stigma-free and culturally responsive suicide prevention support to the local community.
Kempsey has also been chosen for an innovative pilot program, with Mental Health Hospital in the Home launched in February this year.
Together, these initiatives are redesigning mental health services in Kempsey to better meet the needs of the local community and remove common barriers that prevent people from accessing support, like stigma and hospital-related trauma.
Safe Haven
The newly-renovated, Aboriginal-led Safe Haven is a free, non-clinical space where people can walk in without an appointment or referral to receive immediate mental health support.
Safe Havens offer an alternative to accessing mental health services through a hospital emergency department.
The Kempsey Safe Haven will be staffed by Aboriginal peer workers who bring cultural knowledge, lived experience and strong community connections to their support while also working alongside the existing Aboriginal Specialist Wellbeing Service.
Located on Wide Street in Kempsey, the service is now open Thursday to Sunday from 9am to 4pm and is available to everyone in the community.
Mental Health Hospital in the Home (HiTH)
Mental Health Hospital in the Home is an acute mental health service that provides hospital level care to voluntary patients in the comfort of their own home or community.
This type of care is proven to prevent the impacts of prolonged inpatient stays like physical and cognitive decline and is designed to give patients more options and improved continuity of support.
As part of the pilot, capacity has increased at Port Macquarie Base Hospital's Mental Health Inpatient Unit where people requiring hospital admission can continue to receive high-quality care.
Two reviews will assess the effectiveness of the HiTH pilot at the 6-month and 12-month marks.
The transformation in Kempsey is another step in the Minns Labor Government's plan to modernise and improve access to mental healthcare in New South Wales, including:
- Building a network of Medicare Mental Health Centres, where anyone can access free, walk-in mental health support.
- Investing in more than $64 million in community mental health programs, to help people with mental health challenges live independently in the community.
- Embedding suicide prevention into government decision making, with our world-leading Suicide Prevention Act 2025.
The Mental Health Line is available 24/7 on 1800 011 511 to connect people with mental health services. For crisis support, call 13YARN (139 276
