History of St John of God Burwood Hospital

Over the next two years, 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.

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.

Psychiatric care

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.

Casa Venegas

In the 1990s we extended our care for people with mental illness by providing accommodation and support in the community 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.

Redevelopment at Burwood

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.

The mother and baby unit was created in response to an increasing demand for postnatal depression treatment and has allowed us to provide specialised care for women and their newborns.

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

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