CONSTRUCTION of a 52-bed private mental health facility in Deakin is nearing completion.
Stage one of the $27 million Deakin Private Hospital will open in January 2023 and will house Canberra’s only adolescent mental health beds.
Currently, young people are admitted to the pediatric ward at Canberra Hospital, the adult psychiatric ward or sent interstate for treatment.
It’s hoped the facility – built on the corner of Strickland Crescent and Denison Street and operated by Aurora Healthcare – will help “alleviate pressure” on mental health services in the ACT.
“We anticipate that Deakin Private Hospital will help to alleviate the pressure on the ACT’s health system by providing expanded critical capacity, specifically with inpatient services in mind and supported by complementary services including day programs, an outpatient clinic and community-based support services for a wide range of mental health needs,” said Australian CEO of Aurora Healthcare, Julia Strickland-Bellamy.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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