Bethesda Health Care is a private, independent not-for-profit healthcare organisation that has been providing care and services to the Western Australian community for 76 years. We are a modern, vibrant healthcare community, with both our Claremont hospital and our community-based palliative care program holding a reputation for exceptional quality and personalised care.
Our new Bethesda Clinic (Cockburn) has been in planning for four years. The Clinic will be the first private mental health service south of the river and is due to open August 2022. Private mental health care in Australia is disjointed and siloed – our service will be different, and our focus will be on developing a Mental Health System of Care – a continuum, rather than a series of disparate services, partnering with providers who are best in the field to deliver the best quality care.
The Bethesda Clinic will be located on the corner of Legacy and Honour Way, in the community wellness hub at Cockburn Central West, alongside the Cockburn Aquatic Recreation Centre and home of the Fremantle Dockers. Our facility in Cockburn will be a purpose-built, state-of-the-art, modern building providing privacy, comfort and safety for our consumers. The service is a standalone, specialised mental health hospital with on-site kitchen and back-of-house support services:
- 45 inpatient beds in a hotel-like environment focused on healing and recovery
- A Wellness and Recovery Centre offering day therapy programs
- A state-of-the-art Neurostimulation Unit with Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) services
- Specialist Consulting Suites for psychiatry and allied health
- Exploration of community-based mental health care
- Service innovations and a strong digital health focus
We have conducted extensive consumer, carer, psychiatrist and health insurer consultations to tease out current pain points and suggestions for doing things differently; we are redesigning private mental health services from the ground up.
Bethesda are developing partnerships with the not-for-profit and community sector to deliver a truly innovative and comprehensive model of care that will blend clinical and social recovery in a manner that recognises the equal importance of both. Consumers will have a single Recovery Plan, contributed to by both clinical and non-clinical staff, under the clinical governance of their psychiatrist.
In addition, one of the key pillars and points of difference of the new Bethesda Clinic will be its digital element. We are building a forward-thinking electronic medical record and consumer engagement solution that is on-brand with our service, offering consumers, carers, multi-disciplinary team members and administrative staff an engaging and feature-rich experience.
At the heart of our recovery focus is the Bethesda Clinic Network. This Hub-and-Spoke model links community psychiatrists, GPs and allied health providers with the Bethesda Clinic, offering:
- Increased consumer choice – options for the type of care and mode of delivery
- A holistic continuum of care – matching service delivery method to consumer need
- Better information-sharing through our electronic medical record
The Bethesda Board approved the Business Case for the development in March 2019. The internal project team have worked alongside Lead Consultants Silver Thomas Hanley architects and project manager PDS Group over the past year. Broad Construction will build the facility, which is being financed by Dexus, one of Australia’s leading real estate investment trusts, with an on-completion value of approximately $58.3 million.
The Bethesda Clinic will be the first service to provide people who reside south of the river (close to half of the population of Perth) with direct access to private mental health services. We are excited about the positive impact the new Bethesda Clinic will have for the southern parts of Perth and Western Australia.
