Banksia planners need to hit the road: mental health advocate

Helen Mary Jones, of MindMatters Tamworth, says Hunter New England Health should hold community town halls across the New England North West region, because the institution will service the entire region.

Mrs Jones has been a patient at the institution; she suffers from post traumatic stress disorder after over a decade of sexual abuse.

Her brother also died to suicide.

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She now runs the online MindMatters Tamworth group, which boasts several hundred members.

The new Banksia is set to be developed through a 'co-design' process.

That means community groups and other stakeholders like the Tamworth Mental Health Carers' Support Group will be involved in the design process from start to finish.

But Mrs Jones said the process should be even broader than that, and should include town hall style meetings in communities outside the Tamworth region.

"I think a proper consultation would be a series of community forums," she said.

"I'd like to see those forums run across the whole North West and New England areas. It would take quite a while to do it, because it's a fairly big area, but I think it's really important that people get a say."

The mental health advocate said the existing institution was like a prison, was completely inappropriate for people suffering mental health crises, and needed replacing.

"I'm really passionate about mental health, because if people don't have good mental health then it affects their physical health.

"What I'd like to see happen is that the stigma disappears. So that if you're up in Banksia, people will come and see you, bring you a box of chocolates or a bunch of flowers, instead of saying oh you're up there because you're crazy.

"I believe if we can build a really good purpose-built building with good facilities, I think that will really help to change the stigma, because it will be a nice place for people to be."

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The process of winning approval for the hospital upgrade first required the completion of a Clinical Services Plan, a massive region-wide program of consultation and planning.

In 2018 the Tamworth Mental Health Carers' Support Group collected 12,000 signatures demanding a new Banksia Mental Health Unit.

The new institution will have 8 more beds than the old one. It will be built on a site within the existing hospital.

Mrs Jones also backed a proposal to convert the old Banksia building into a new drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre for local residents.

The upgrade was mentioned in the recent NSW budget, but still without a price tag attached.

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