History of St John of God Burwood Hospital

Beginnings as a hospital

The Brothers used the facility as a medical and psychiatric hospital in line with their mission to provide health care services to those in need.

In 1981, the hospital was officially registered as a psychiatric and medical hospital. 

Shortly after, in 1983, we responded to the AIDS epidemic and became one of the first private hospitals to accept patients with HIV and AIDS, a disenfranchised group in society at the time.

Mental health, psychiatric, and addiction care

By 1990, our focus shifted to solely providing psychiatric care and we became a specialised mental health facility delivering person-centred care to people with mental health and drug and alcohol issues.

From this time we developed and promoted our current program of research to become one of the leading private psychiatric hospitals in Australia.

As such, we were one of the first hospitals in Australia to trial Clozapine, an antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia. We were also one of the first hospitals to offer help to people with online gambling addiction.

Launching accommodation support

In the 1990s, we extended our care for people with mental illness by providing accommodation and support in the community, particularly for those at risk of homelessness, through our Casa Venegas service.

In 2007, we became a part of St John of God Health Care when the organisation took responsibility for the Brothers of St John of God operations in Australia and New Zealand.

Mental health care for mothers and their babies

The Mother and Baby Unit was created in response to an increasing demand for perinatal mental health treatment, including depression and anxiety, and has allowed us to provide specialised care for women and their babies up to 12 months of age.

Our culture of care and research in perinatal mental health care has helped make us a leader in the field and we offer the only specialist inpatient program in New South Wales for mothers who are struggling with perinatal mental health.

Continued development and leading the way in mental health

Today our facility continues to provide dedicated mental health care in response to the needs of the community. 

A $15 million major upgrade was undertaken in 2014 which refurbished all areas of the 95-bed hospital and added a new chapel, Counselling and Therapy Centre, and Mother and Baby Unit.

Our Counselling and Therapy Centre provides more than 8,000 outpatients episodes of care each year.

Hundreds of people have benefitted from the Casa Venegas accommodation and support service to help them transition to independent living.

We also undertake leading research in this field in partnership with the University of New South Wales.