The project involved development of a new Acute Mental Health Unit (HBH AMHU) on the Hervey Bay Hospital campus comprising a new 22-bed model of care driven facility which was purpose built to provide ‘home-like’ facilities for acute care and administration, including:

• a gymnasium;
• outdoor breakout areas;
• sensory rooms;
• lounges;
• garden and breakout areas;
• kitchen facilities; and
• dedicated on-grade parking

The layout of the rooms, lighting, gardens, paintwork and artwork were all designed to facilitate a sense of wellness and place as well as one of safety.

The facility also includes staff and administration space on the first floor for all required support and administration staff operating the facility.

• The design of the new unit was a collaborative effort with input from consumers, carers, families and lived-experience workers from the beginning through to the final stages.
• The project delivered a facility that realises multi-disciplinary benefits, including a social services, psychology, medical and nursing, exercise physiology as well as an in-house cooking and life skills.
• Centralised service for vulnerable consumers such as women, mothers and babies, adolescents and older persons and the introduction of a model of care that can accommodate a broader cohort of consumers requiring inpatient admission within the region.
• Better health outcomes achieved through inpatient mental health services provided close to the consumers’ place of residence.
• Another key benefit of the project was a separate significant parking expansion to enable the release of the site for the AMHU with legacy benefits for staff and users of the remainder of the campus.

Pace provided Project Management, Contract Superintendent, Superintendent’s Representative and Defects Management services to the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service through Queensland Health from inception to completion of the project.