Maitland Private Hospital's Barrington Clinic team hope to reduce the stigma around mental health

With the help of a giant inflatable elephant, the Maitland Private team opened up a conversation on mental health with the hopes of reducing stigma surrounding the topic.

Staff from Maitland Private's mental health unit The Barrington Clinic designed a range of activities for Mental Health Week (October 10-14) to make sure those in the hospital community - including patients, staff and carers - feel comfortable talking about their own struggles, or helping someone who needs it.

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From sensory-based activities and art to fun activities like karaoke, volleyball and pizza nights, there was lots on to improve wellbeing and get a conversation started in a light-hearted environment.

Maitland Private Hospital deputy director of clinical services Anita Moynihan said the best and most important activities, though, were the ones surrounding education and first aid.

Ms Moynihan said the stigma around mental health is definitely improving, especially when you compare how older generations and younger generations talk about it.

"I think if you look at the stigma of mental health from, say, our parents generation to now it's worlds apart," she said.

"That's what makes it so exciting and dynamic for us right now to be part of that moving forward, and that it's actually okay to not be okay.

"Especially as we come out of out of a pandemic, I don't think anyone knew how that would look, so even more so to be here at a time like this, where this could grow and support the community when they needed it, it's meant a lot to us."

The Barrington Clinic nurse unit manager Kym Toussaint said the team is using Mental Health Week as an opportunity to break the stigma around mental health, at a time when the hospital is in the midst of expanding its mental health services.

"I live and breathe mental health, it is something that has been needed, we have changed what we do here in mental health to be recovery focused," she said.

When Ms Toussaint came to Maitland Private in 2020, the mental health clinic was a 24 bed service, and now it has grown to 44 beds. By February 2023, it will grow again to 65 beds.

"When I took on the role in 2020, the vision I had for this hospital regarding mental health was to be a centre of excellence, to be able to provide the community with the opportunity to get services local to them, rather than having to go elsewhere," Ms Toussaint said.

The Barrington Clinic takes in-patients, day program patients and psychology patients and helps with depression management, addictive disorders, anxiety management, art therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, personality disorders, PTSD and substance issues.