Oasis at Monash Children’s Hospital
In a step towards providing even better healthcare for Victorian children, Monash Children’s Hospital recently opened Oasis (Unit 2B), an eight bed inpatient unit dedicated to providing specialist care to children with complex psychiatric and neurodevelopmental needs.
Oasis is a new service for children up to 12 years of age who experience severe distress associated with their mental health, who cannot be effectively assessed and treated in a community-based setting.
It is the first child mental health inpatient unit in Australia with a model of care specifically designed for children with both mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties. Internationally there are a small number of units who design their services specifically for this cohort of children.
Oasis is a part of the network of Child and Youth Mental Health services (CYMHS)/ Early in Life Mental Health Service (ELMHS) provided across metropolitan and regional Victoria. Patient care is carefully planned and managed through collaboration with local CYMHS care teams to ensure an integrated and effective service, tailored to the individual needs of each child and family.
The unit provides brief emergency admissions and planned assessment admissions. Parents and carers are admitted with their child to support them through their hospital stay and to help ensure that treatment and planning meets individual family/carer needs.
“Our team of specialists have reviewed the literature, engaged with consumers and consulted with an expert panel in Victoria and internationally to develop a model of care that we anticipate will best meet the needs of children with severe and acute neuropsychiatric difficulties, as well as their families and their community-based care teams,” said Lidor Arbel, Operations Director, Early in Life Mental Health Service, Mental Health Program, Monash Health.
Oasis is located on Level 2 of Monash Children’s Hospital, behind the main public lifts next to the Stepping Stones unit. For more information about the unit click here.
