Wollongong could soon become a "world first hub" for women who are victims and survivors of domestic violence, with two unique women's trauma centres on track to open in the region.
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On Saturday, Ramsay Health unveiled plans to turn its former rehabilitation hospital at Thirroul in to a women's only mental health service.
Pitched by the private hospital operator as Australia's first women's stand-alone, trauma-informed mental health service, the transformed Lawrence Hargrave Private Hospital will open as the new clinic on August 1.
News of its opening comes just weeks after the federal government announced it would give $25 million to Wollongong's domestic violence trauma recovery centre, and local women's advocates say the two centres will be able to work together to turn the region into a hub for helping women.
Ramsay Clinic Thirroul will be a 43-bed women's only unit, providing a safe environment where women can deal with trauma-related mental health disorders. It will treat women who are survivors of domestic violence and other trauma, including veterans, refugees and car crash victims.
The clinic will offer three-weeks stays, as well as day patient programs, and aims to become a training centre for psychiatric, medical, psychological and other allied health and nursing students.
This represents a world first hub for Wollongong and the Illawarra - it's quite amazing and really leading in the area of trauma recovery and providing support for women who have experience domestic violence.
- Illawarra Women's HealthCentre general manager Sally Stevenson
Wollongong psychiatrist Dr Karen Williams, who will head up the clinic, said this would be the first facility dedicated to trauma survivors that is just for women.
"At the moment if a women needs inpatient care and need to go into a facility because they are suicidal, for example, the only real options in NSW is that they would go to the public hospital where they would get put in an acute inpatient facility," she said.
"They would share the space with psychotic men and they would be in a locked ward. For someone who has experienced family and sexual violence, being locked up with the opposite sex - which is the sex which has almost always been the one that has caused the trauma to begin with - is traumatising."
"Private health facilities have a similar impact because they are mixed wards. This unit is completely different because it will only accommodate females."
She said this was important to allow women to properly explore their trauma, especially in group situations.
Dr Williams said the clinic was also unique in its approach to trauma, as it would veer away from simply treating symptoms of trauma - like depression or anxiety - to identifying and treating the underlying cause.
Illawarra Women's Health Centre general manager Sally Stevenson who led the call for the publicly funded women's trauma recovery centre, said the Ramsay clinic was "a great win for the Illawarra".
"What is exceptional is that the two services will be complementary," she said.
"The hospital is inpatient and intense support and psychological support, whereas the trauma recovery centre is a public health based system based in the community and providing wrap around support.
"There will be a referral pathway between the two services, which means women will be safe when they want to move into an inpatient facility, but also when they are wanting to move back into the community when they are discharged."
"This represents a world first hub for Wollongong and the Illawarra - it's quite amazing and really leading in the area of trauma recovery and providing support for women who have experience domestic violence."
The public centre has funding from the federal government to allow it to operate for five years, but needs NSW Government funding for a site to be selected and the physical centre to be built.
Ms Stevenson said women's health advocates were eagerly awaiting the state budget, due to be handed down in mid-June.
The rehab services which were previously offered at the Thirroul hospital will remain on offer at Figtree private hospital, and Ramsay said there was no loss of staff or patient beds in creating the new women's centre.
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