Adult Acute Inpatient Units

What we do

Our Adult Acute Inpatient Units provide psychiatric assessment, management and treatment during an acute phase of mental illness.

We operate five Acute Inpatient Units across the NorthWestern Mental Health catchment, based within general hospital campuses at Sunshine Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Broadmeadows Health Service and Northern Hospital, Epping.

The Inpatient Units provide assessment and treatment to people who are acutely unwell and where there may be concerns for the safety of the person or others. The majority of people admitted to our Inpatient Units, at least in the early stages of an admission, are under the care of the Mental Health Act 2014.

Care is provided by a multidisciplinary team and aims to care for people in the acute phase of illness and then support them to transition home with appropriate community based support when they have recovered enough to be treated effectively and safely in the community.

Eligibility

As a public clinical mental health service, our services are for people with a significant level of disturbance, psychosocial need or concern regarding a risk to themselves or others as a result of a mental illness.  Common diagnoses treated by our services include, but are not limited to:

  • schizophrenia
  • first episode psychosis
  • bipolar disorder
  • severe personality disorder
  • severe depression or anxiety disorder

Entry criteria is consistent with those for all public acute inpatient mental health services.

Locations

Find out more about Inpatient Unit (IPU) locations.

Referrals

To make a referral, contact our Triage service on 1300 874 243 (1300 TRIAGE). 

Our Inpatient Units do not accept referrals directly.

If the person requiring admission is already a consumer of one of our services, their key clinician and treating psychiatrist should be contacted directly to discuss a referral for an inpatient admission.