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To: The Victorian Minister for Mental Health, Ms. Ingrid Stitt and NSW Minister for Mental Health The Hon. Rose Jackson.
Rural Young People deserve mental-health crisis care
Young people in the Hume and Riverina regions deserve access to mental health crisis care.
The Victorian and New South Wales Governments must commit to establishing a dedicated, adolescent, acute inpatient mental health unit in Albury—Wodonga to serve the Hume and Riverina regions. Young people in crisis are currently admitted to adult wards, left in emergency departments, or transferred 3–6 hours away without bed guarantees. The $558 million Albury–Wodonga Hospital redevelopment includes a 32-bed adult mental health unit but no adolescent capacity or future expansion. This major gap needs to be fixed so crisis care is available close to home when young people need it most, in alignment with the Royal Commissions Recommendations into mental health.
We believe regional young people should have the same standard of care as their metropolitan peers, and we will not stop advocating until this becomes the reality.
Why is this important?
Young people in the Hume and Riverina regions currently have no access to local, age-appropriate acute inpatient mental health care. When adolescents experience severe mental health crises, they are too often admitted to adult wards, left for extended periods in emergency departments, or transported hours away from their community by family or patient transport, even when there is an immediate danger to themselves.
These arrangements are clinically inappropriate, distressing, and inconsistent with trauma-informed standards of care. They disrupt schooling, separate families, and increase the risk of further harm - emotionally, socially and physically.
Albury–Wodonga is centrally positioned to reduce unsafe travel distances across both Victoria and New South Wales, while easing pressure on already stretched metropolitan services.
This is about safety, equity, and ensuring crisis care is available close to home when it is needed most.