The fourth floor of the Wollongong hospital  will be reserved for Defence Force and emergency service workers to receive treatment while seeking solace in  shared experiences.

Chairman of the  Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Australia New Zealand organisation – and former chief of the Defence Force – Admiral Chris Barrie opened the ward on Friday,  with the first patients expected on Monday.

The treatment  remained the same as that provided to the hospital’s civilian patients. However, placing defence and emergency staff patients together would allow them to provide support to one another, general manager and nursing director Kim Kapp said.

‘‘What we found in the past was  returned servicemen and police, firies and ambos have a commonality between themselves that leads to them working together,’’ she said.

‘‘Being surrounded by the same people can be therapeutic.’’

The idea for the ward came from observing how existing military and emergency staff patients interacted during treatment.

‘‘They seemed to gravitate towards each other and unify and shared experiences so it made perfect sense to combine these patient groups on one level.

‘‘We often do support groups with these patients and they really gelled well together.’’

Since the dedicated mental health  centre opened two years ago, Ms Kapp has noticed an increase in defence force and emergency services personnel seeking treatment for PTSD.

‘‘We have certainly seen a demand, we’ve got a huge group of defence people coming back from serving overseas,’’ she said.