About us

The Child Inpatient Unit is a 12 bed acute mental health unit for children up to 12 years old (primary school age).

We offer a short, intensive stay between 2 and 4 weeks and provide a comprehensive service to children and their families.

Children need to be accompanied by their parents or carers when they are admitted to the unit to support their emotional wellbeing. This provides your child with the care and support they need, and it also means that you get the support you need.

Our services

We provide the following services:

• Mental health assessment, usually together with your family and in collaboration with other agencies/team involves in your care.
• Intensive inpatient treatment within a safe environment.
• Multi-disciplinary team specialist assessment such as Neuropsychology, speech and language and occupational therapy.
• Children can access Austin school whilst admitted on the ward.
• A variety of therapeutic groups and additional programmes during school holidays
• Provide care in the least restrictive manner.
• Lived Experience Support Worker and Aboriginal Mental Health Liaison are fully embedded in the service.

We are also a learning and teaching environment and regularly have students of various disciplines.

Related services

• Community outpatient services

  We provide community-based mental health services for children and young people aged 0-25 years.

• Autism assessments

  We offer autism assessments for children from 2 and 12 years of age, and support children with autism who are using our services.

• Adolescent Inpatient Unit

  If you have turned 13 but are not yet 18, you be assessed and treated in our Adolescent Inpatient Unit.

• Austin School

  The Austin School provides short-term education for primary and secondary school children while they're in hospital.

Referrals

For clients

Your child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) or private psychiatrist will organise for you to access this service. 

For health professionals

We accept referrals from the infant child and youth mental health service (ICYMHS) catchment area, and private psychiatry.

All initial referrals go through Oasis Child Unit at Monash Children’s Health, call 03 8572 4693.

Find out more about referrals to mental health.

Contact us

Child Inpatient Unit

Phone: 03 9496 5108

After hours: 03 9496 5000

Location

Marian Drummond Building
Austin Hospital
145 Studley Road
Heidelberg VIC

View location map

Postal address

Child Inpatient Unit
Austin Hospital
PO Box 5555
Heidelberg VIC 3084
Australia