The Allan Labor Government is celebrating the 12 months of care at Australia's first dedicated public women's mental health service - with hundreds of women supported in its first year of operation.
Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt and Member for Albert Park Nina Taylor today visited the Women's Recovery Network (Wren) at the Albert Road Clinic in St Kilda to mark the anniversary of the free, statewide service.
The service offers in-patient and in-home care for women with complex issues including experiences of trauma, sexual abuse, eating disorders and perinatal mental health concerns, and supports women to recover in a safe, respectful and welcoming setting.
At Wren, women receive a personalised program built around individual needs supported by a care team of clinicians, therapists, and peer workers with lived experience of mental healthcare.
Wren is operated by Alfred Health in Melbourne and Goulburn Valley Health in Shepparton with Ramsay Health Care partnering as the private provider alongside both services.
The Melbourne service includes 24 inpatient beds and six Hospital in the Home beds, while Shepparton women can access two inpatient beds at Shepparton Private Hospital and three Hospital in the Home beds.
The innovative service model was co-designed in consultation with women with lived experience of the mental health system and has shown to provide gender-specific and trauma-informed care in its first year of operation.
The Labor Government invested $100 million to establish the service in response to the Royal Commission which found many women experienced gender-based harm or abuse in the mental health system.
It has also delivered on a key action of Victoria's Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan 2023-27.
Since the Royal Commission handed down its final report, a total of more than $6 billion has been invested into Victoria's mental health and wellbeing system - the largest investment in mental health in Victoria's history - with work underway on 90 per cent of the report recommendations.
As stated by Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt
"Women's health matters, and women's safety matters -which is why we developed this service, to focus specifically on the needs of women."
"In the first year of the Women's Recovery Network, we've supported hundreds of women through acute mental health concerns and provided choice in the way they receive care."
As stated by Member for Albert Park Nina Taylor
"This service in the heart of inner Melbourne is an example of the meaningful steps we have taken to ensuring women can access the dedicated care and treatment they need to live a full life."
