St George Community Mental Health

The St George Mental Health Service includes the following teams/units:

Intake and Assessment Service

TRIAGE Team
Phone: 1800 011 511
Hours: 8.30am - 5.00pm

The TRIAGE Team is the central point for all enquiries in the St George and Sutherland areas about mental health problems.

You should call the Intake and Assessment Service if you:

• Are contacting the St George Mental Health Service for the first time.
• Want information, advice or assessment of mental health problems.
• Would like to see a mental health worker.

Acute Care Team (ACT)

St George Community Mental Health Centre
Level 1, 15 Kensington St
Kogarah NSW 2217
Phone: (02) 9553 2595
Fax: (02) 9553 2525
Hours: 8.00am – 10.30pm (7 days)

The Acute Care Team (ACT) provides community-based mental health assessments and interventions for consumers with acute mental health problems.

The role of the ACT is to provide crisis intervention and short-term follow up of consumers in an acute phase of mental illness or distress.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

Hurstville Community Mental Health Centre
34 Woniora Rd
Hurstville NSW 2220
Phone: (02) 8198 7300
Hours: 8.30am - 5.00pm Monday to Friday

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) offers a broad range of services, including family-based counselling.

The focus is on prevention and health promotion services. CAMHS provides short-term to medium-term counselling, generally with a family focus. This includes individual, group and family interventions.

Typical problems that CAMHS may assist with include:

Early Childhood (0-5 years)

• Post-natal distress
• Behavioural difficulties
• Developmental problems
• Parenting issues

School Aged Children (5-12 years)

• Behavioural difficulties – fighting, stealing, school refusal, naughtiness
• Emotional difficulties – sadness, loss, fears/worries, trauma, anger, stress, bullying
• Relationship difficulties – blended families, relationship problems, cross-cultural issues, family/parenting issues
• Loss and grief

Young People (12-18 years)

• Family conflict
• Relationship difficulties
• Sexuality issues
• Trauma
• Anxiety/depression
• Self harm/suicide

Home visits are available in some circumstances.

Educational and therapeutic group programs are run throughout the year (Postnatal Depression, Confident Carers, Cooperative Kids, Meeting the Emotional Needs of your Child and Raising Confident Children).

The CAMHS Team also offers acute assessments and brief interventions for families dealing with challenging mental health difficulties such as:

• Thoughts or behaviours placing themselves or others at risk of harm.
• Onset of serious mental illness.
• Severe distress.

The focus is on helping acutely distressed young people and their families establish and maintain safety. The CAMHS Team can provide short-term intensive intervention, with an emphasis on working in partnership with families, schools and appropriate services in the community to create systems of safety.

Adult Community Mental Health

St George Community Mental Health Centre
Level 1, 15 Kensington St
Kogarah NSW 2217
Phone: (02) 9553 2500
Fax: (02) 9553 2525
Hours: 8.30am – 5.00pm

Case management teams work in the St George Community Mental Health Centre to provide ongoing treatment and support for consumers. Services are provided to clients and their families affected by a variety of mental illnesses such as bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, recent onset of psychotic illness plus anxiety and mood disorders.

The services offered by these teams include:

• Bilingual and bicultural services including counselling in Greek, Arabic, Cantonese and Macedonian. Interpreter services are available for other languages.
• Case management.
• Counselling.
• Psychological interventions.
• Education about mental health and illnesses.
• Supervision with medication.
• Support services for consumers, their families and/or their carers.

Acute Inpatient Unit

St George Hospital
South St
Kogarah NSW 2217
Phone: (02) 9113 2432

Visiting Hours: 10.30am – 12.30pm, 3.00pm – 8.00pm

The Acute Inpatient Unit has an observation ward and a general acute ward to provide supervised care in hospital when community treatment is not possible. Consumers are admitted to the general acute ward when they have a mental illness or disorder which needs to be treated to stabilise their mental state. The Acute Inpatient Unit offers education and support to consumers (during their stay in hospital) and their families, and also provides activity programs and occupational therapy.

Consumers may be admitted to the observation ward when they are severely troubled by the symptoms of mental illness and need close observation and monitoring. When the consumers’ mental state has stabilised, they may be transferred to the general acute ward for ongoing treatment.

The Older Persons Mental Health Service

7 Chapel St
Kogarah NSW 2217
Phone: 02 9113 2035
Fax: 02 9113 2098
Hours: 8.30am - 5.00pm

The Older Persons Mental Health Service provides assessment and treatment for older people (65 years and over) with mental health problems. Treatment is provided in both hospital and the community. The team also offers consultation and support to other aged care services.

St George Hospital
Kensington St,
Kogarah NSW 2217
Phone: (02) 9113 1419
Fax: (02) 9113 2135

The 6-bed Psychiatric Emergency Care Centre (PECC) is located alongside the Emergency Department. It provides short term (ideally 24-72 hour) admission for patients in mental health crisis, who may then be discharged to ongoing support in the community. Consumers are provided with a wide range of specialised care, from mental health assessment in the Emergency Department itself through to referral to necessary follow-up care and discharge planning.

Rehabilitation Team

St George Community Mental Health Centre
Level 1, 15 Kensington St