Glenside Hospital (Adelaide)

This article refers to grounds and buildings owned by the original mental health facility on the site (from 1846), which became known as "Glenside Hospital" from 1967, through to other uses of the site to the current day including the new mental health facilities called Glenside Health Services.

Glenside Hospital
SA Health
Geography
Location	2 Karrayarta Drive, Glenside, South Australia, Australia
Organisation
Care system	Medicare (Australia)
Funding	Public hospital
Type	Specialist
Services
Emergency department	No
Beds	119
Speciality	Mental Health
History
Opened	1870

Glenside Hospital, as it was known from 1967, previously the Public Colonial Lunatic Asylum of South Australia, Parkside Lunatic Asylum and Parkside Mental Hospital, was a complex of buildings used as a psychiatric hospital in Glenside, South Australia. ^[1]

Since the 1970s the original site has been subdivided and parcels of land sold off, largely for housing. ^[1] The large administration building fronting the side was refurbished to house the Adelaide Studios of the South Australian Film Corporation in 2011. The site is sometimes referred to as "the old Glenside Hospital", the "Glenside Hospital historical precinct" or "Glenside Campus". ^[2]

As of April 2019 ^[update] , Glenside Health Services was built at the southern end of the site to co-locate mental health services with beautiful surroundings and shared garden spaces to enhance recovery. Services on site include Acute Care (Central Adelaide Local Health Network), Rural and Remote (Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network), Helen Mayo House (Women's and Children's Health Network), Inpatient Rehabilitation Services (Central Adelaide Local Health Network), Inpatient Alcohol and Other Drug Withdrawal Service (Southern Adelaide Local Health Network) and the Tarnanthi Forensic Sub-Acute Unit (Northern Adelaide Local Health Network). Adjacent to Glenside Health Services is the Jamie Larcombe Centre, providing mental health and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) services to veterans."

History of the hospital

Parkside Mental Hospital, ca. 1925

The Public Colonial Lunatic Asylum of South Australia was founded at the site in 1846 as the state's first purpose-run asylum to house residents deemed mentally ill. It was run more like a farm than a hospital, and housed patients deemed too mentally unwell to be housed in the Adelaide Gaol. It operated until 1852, when the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum opened on the eastern side of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital (now Lot Fourteen), on land now part of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, ^[3] and the Glenside site was not used for such purposes for another 18 years. ^[1]

It reopened as Parkside Lunatic Asylum in 1870, housing the chronically mentally ill as well as people nearing the end of their lives, those suffering from undiagnosed illnesses, unmarried women with children and prostitutes. ^{[1] [2]} The morgue for the asylum was a building in the Adelaide Botanic Garden. ^{[4] [3] [5] [6]}

The institution was renamed Parkside Mental Hospital in 1913 at the time of changes in the Mental Health Act 1913, when it was classified as both a receiving and a mental hospital. The large administration building became the receiving hospital and the other buildings were used for long-term patients. The infamous "Z Ward" housed the criminally and mentally insane. Parkside was also referred to as "The Bin". ^{[1] [2]}

Erindale Secure Ward for Males, a lower security unit than the Z Ward, was built in 1877 and The Elms in 1880 to house female patients, although later used for elderly men, then as a Domestic Training Unit and for Music Therapy. ^[2]

Residency of Parkside Lunatic Asylum peaked at 1,769 in 1958. The facility was renamed Glenside Hospital in 1967. ^[1]

Other uses of the site

From the 1970s onwards, with falling numbers and changing methods of treatment, the original site was progressively sold off, largely for housing, and some of the historic buildings refurbished for use by organisations such as SA Health, PIRSA and ArtsSA. ^[1] The main administration building has housed the South Australian Film Corporation since 2011, ^[2] and 2.14 hectares of the original site was sold to Beach Energy in 2014. ^[7]

Current mental health facilities

In 2012, Stage 1 of a series of a transformation of the old facilities, with a Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, Helen Mayo House and Shared Activities Centre (SHAC) housing up to 46 patients was completed. In total, the facilities were planned to include 129 individual living units, plus 20 supported accommodation units and a 15-bed intermediate care centre. ^[8] By 2016 the hospital had only 119 beds. ^[7]

Stage 2 included the construction of Acute Care Inpatient Services, Rural and Remote Services, Drug and Alcohol Services of South Australia (DASSA) and the Administration and Learning Services building.

Glenside Health Services was built at the southern end of the site to co-locate mental health services with beautiful surroundings and shared garden spaces to enhance recovery. Staff commenced working in the new facilities with a new model of care. Services on site include Acute Care (Central Adelaide Local Health Network), Rural and Remote (Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network), Helen Mayo House (Women's and Children's Health Network), Inpatient Rehabilitation Services (Central Adelaide Local Health Network), Inpatient Alcohol and Other Drug Withdrawal Service (Southern Adelaide Local Health Network) and the Tarnanthi Forensic Sub-Acute Unit (Northern Adelaide Local Health Network).

The former intermediate care centre became part of a new centre called the Jamie Larcombe Centre, providing mental health and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) services to veterans. The centre sits adjacent to Glenside Health Services and is governed by the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network.

In May 2019, an independent review conducted by two interstate experts and a representative of the Chief Psychiatrist's office found “attitudes and practices that are not in line with contemporary thinking” were prevalent in the ten-year-old 40-bed Inpatient Rehabilitation Service (IRS), as well as a building design unsuitable for longer-term residents. Intensive monitoring would continue until standards were met. ^{[9] [10]}

In July 2019 it was announced that ten new forensic mental health beds had opened a dedicated Forensic Sub-Acute Unit at Glenside Health Services named Tarnanthi. A model of care specific to the facility had been developed and the state's Chief Psychiatrist, Dr John Brayley, had approved the facility. ^[11]

References

1. Williamson, Brett (11 August 2011). "Inside Glenside: A history of mental health in Adelaide". ABC 891 Adelaide. Adelaide: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
2. "Glenside Hospital Historical Precinct". Weekend Notes. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
3. "Adelaide Lunatic Asylum Morgue". WeekendNotes. 10 January 2014. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
4. "Adelaide Botanic Garden - former Lunatic Asylum Morgue". Adelaidepedia. 9 April 2020. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
5. "7 heritage places in SA you might not know about". Government of South Australia. Department for Environment and Water. 4 October 2018. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
6. Walsh, Ashley (16 May 2013). "Hospital history in the botanic garden". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
7. The dark, disturbing past of Glenside’s Z Ward, the lunatic asylum, Adelaide Now, April 24, 2016
8. Williamson, Brett (27 November 2012). "Inside the new Glenside mental health facilities". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
9. Fedorowytsch, Tom (5 May 2019). "Staff at Glenside mental health service work in 'survival mode', new report finds". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
10. Richardson, Tom (5 May 2019). "Patient care at Glenside under scrutiny after damning review". In Daily. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
11. Wade, Stephen (17 July 2019). "New forensic beds to ease pressure on EDs". Government of South Australia. Dept of the Premier and Cabinet (Stephen Marshall's page). Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2019.

34°56′35″S138°37′30″E / 34.943°S 138.625°E / -34.943; 138.625