Emergency after hours referrals are managed through the RCH Emergency Department Telephone 03 9345 6153

Services

Banksia Ward (Adolescent Inpatient Unit)

Telephone +613 9345 9600 (when referrals made in business hours)

The Banksia Ward is a 16-bed adolescent inpatient service providing assessment and treatment for young people aged 13-18 years who require more assistance than can be offered in an outpatient setting.

CASEA Team

Telephone +613 9345 6011 

CAMHS and Schools Early Action (CASEA) is an early intervention program for young children in Prep to Year 3 with challenging behaviours and emerging conduct disorders. This comprehensive school-based program works with parents and schools to help these children improve their behaviours early in life and make the most of their opportunities in the future. The program runs in up to 10 public or Catholic Education schools per year.

Community Mental Health Teams (Outpatient)

RCH Mental Health Intake Team – for referrals

Telephone 1800 44 55 11 (free call)

See Contact Us Contact us for other details including maps

Young people (0 – 15 years) and their families might attend one of our community teams for an initial consultation.

Most families are offered a Pathways Session. This session is conducted with two clinicians and the family. It involves pre–session phone contact with the family, a two hour appointment and post-session phone call. During the session, the aim is to focus on the family's priority of the most pressing concern. As with traditional assessments, risk issues take precedence. At the post-session phone call, a decision is made as to whether further ongoing appointments would be helpful for the young person's recovery. After this, we send a summary letter to the family.

Some families are offered other options of treatment and care, such as individual therapy, family therapy, group programs, advice to schools, etc. We use research (evidence) to help us work out what advice and therapy to provide. Sometimes medication is recommended as well. This is discussed with your doctor at the time. Therapy and case management are reviewed regularly to make sure we are helping with your recovery. At any time, you can ask us questions about your recovery plans and progress. Our aim is to support you to reach your goals.

Carer Consultant

Telephone +613 9345 6011

Our Carer Consultant works with service users, staff and community to maintain and develop our participation initiatives.

Developmental Neuropsychiatry (DNP) Team

Telephone +613 9345 4666

Specialist multidisciplinary assessment is provided for children aged 0-18 years with delays and impairments in several areas of development with associated emotional, social and behavioural problems. This team focuses on more complex presentations and unclear diagnoses.

Eating Disorders Team

Telephone +613 9345 6533

In collaboration with the Centre for Adolescent Health, this team provides an integrated interdisciplinary assessment and interventions for young people aged 12-18 years with eating disorders and their families. Clinicians can discuss concerns for children younger than this with eating issues as well. A referral from a medical practitioner is required.

Gender Service

Telephone +613 9345 5890

The Department of Adolescent Medicine provide young people who reside in Victoria (up to 17th birthday) a multidisciplinary approach to information, assessment, treatment and support with concerns regarding their gender identity. Information regarding the Gender service and the process of referral can be found here https://www.rch.org.au/adolescent-medicine/gender-service/

Hospital Consultation - Liaison Team

RCH Mental Health Intake Team

Telephone 1800 44 55 11 (free call)

Young people (0-18 years) and their families may be referred to the Hospital Consultation-Liaison Team while they are in hospital receiving other medical investigations or treatment. We work with the young person, family and medical team to find out if there is a mental health difficulty and how we can help. As with traditional assessments, risk issues take precedence. It is possible that the child or adolescent may be referred to other teams within RCH Mental Health, another mental health service for young people or agencies in the community to assist the family through further appointments.

Infant Mental Health Team

A specialist infant mental health service for 0-4 year olds is able to see infants and pre-schoolers with a range of difficulties that may be impacting on their emotional wellbeing and development. There are regular professional development opportunities facilitated by the Infant Mental Health Team; secondary consultations are available on referral request.

Koori consumers

Telephone +613 9345 6011

RCH Mental Health has a Koori Social and Emotional Wellbeing Officer who can assist Koori children, young people and their families at all points along their journey with us. Their role is to make sure we offer a safe cultural space for you to discuss your recovery. There are also supports available if your child is in hospital through the Wadja Aboriginal Family Place.

Interpreter services

Telephone +613 9345 5998 

An interpreter can be arranged for families to assist in completing an assessment and for routine appointments. Please advise us if you require this service.

Primary or Secondary Consultation RCH Intake Team

Telephone 1800 44 55 11 (free call)

Consultations can be provided to professionals and agencies regarding general issues or individual cases. Regular consultations to an agency can also be arranged to build capacity in dealing with mental illness and recovery.

Psychology and Neuropsychology Service 

Telephone +613 9345 5881 Clinical Psychology 

Telephone +613 9345 5373 Neuropsychology

The RCH Psychology Service offer clinical psychology and neuropsychology services for young people 0 -18 years living across Victoria. Clinical Psychologists and Neuropsychologists are trained to comprehensively assess children's behaviour, emotional state and cognitive functioning within a developmental framework and family context.

RCH Psychiatry Clinic

Telephone +613 9345 6180

Facsimile +613 9345 5034

The RCH Psychiatry Clinic was established to provide psychiatric care to children and adolescents up to the age of 18 years, who present co-morbid mental health problems and physical health problems, are being treated at the Royal Children's Hospital and may not meet entry criteria for public mental health services. The Clinic is staffed by psychiatrists, with experience in working with children and young people with co-morbid physical illnesses and disabilities. The Clinic offers assessment and short to medium-term treatment of these problems, with consultation to referring paediatricians.

Specialist Autism Assessment Team

Telephone +613 9345 4026 or +613 9345 6002

The team provides a specialised assessment service for children aged 0-15 years who may have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  The team sees children for whom diagnosis is complicated by mental health, developmental, or medical conditions that may co-exist with, or be difficult to differentiate from, ASD.  Second opinions are also provided for children who have received a formal assessment and were not diagnosed with ASD though for who concerns about the diagnosis persists.  A referral from a paediatrician is required and the team provides a range of services, from secondary consultation through to a full multidisciplinary assessment, depending on the needs of child and staff resources.  The team also provides teaching and training within RCH and to the community more broadly. 

Travancore School

Telephone +613 9345 6053

Travancore School is a Department of Education and Training school that supports students recovering from mental illness in the Western and Northern metropolitan regions of Melbourne. The teachers work in partnership with RCH Mental Health and Orygen Youth Health staff. The primary educational focus of all programs is to ensure student engagement with education and to transition students to community-based settings where applicable. Teachers offer comprehensive classroom-based learning, outreach support to students in an educational setting and individual pathway plans. The school also builds the capacity of teachers and other staff to assist students with mental health issues.

Clinical Practice Guidelines

The clinical practice guidelines used in RCH Mental Health are in line with RCH policies and procedures; guidelines are based on best evidence at the time.

Visit the full list of Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Visit the National Medical Health and Medical Research Council guidelines page.

Contributions from RCH Mental Health have included:

• Mental State Examinations
• Conduct disorders
• ADHD
• Concussion
• Substance use (abuse)
• Engaging with and assessing the adolescent patient
• Anorexia Nervosa
  

Research and projects

RCH Mental Health has close working relationships with The Children's Campus partners: the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and The University of Melbourne.

Our collaborative research interests are varied and include clinical trials of psychological disorders, development of e-health tools to support clinicians, suicide prevention, multidisciplinary research with a large number of RCH medical units (for example Diabetes, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), neuroscience, adolescent health, community child health, ADHD and school refusal to name a selection.

See the MCRI research pages under the following themes:

• social and mental health
• child neuropsychology
• developmental imaging
• public health for community child health

Our research focus is clinically based and our vision is to develop the evidence base for mental health for infants, children and adolescents followed by translation into clinical practice.

Training

RCH Mental Health is proud to be part of producing high quality staff now and into the future. It is committed to excellence in education for its staff and students.

Central to our workforce development is our active participation in:

• Mental Health Registrar and Fellow positions (for psychiatry and paediatrics)
• Specialist Training Program (STP) for Registrars in unique clinical areas (e.g. Infant Mental Health and Eating Disorders)
• Psychology internships and student placements (Clinical and Neuropsychology)
• Mental Health Nurses (Students, Graduates and Postgraduates)
• Student Placements in Allied Health (Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Speech Pathology)
• Administration student placements.

Upcoming and broad-ranging Mental Health professional development opportunities are listed below. Please click on the links for further details.

Topic	Find out more
Western Victorian Mental Health	To be updated
Child and Youth: Community Development Training	The Royal Children's Hospital Mental Health, Orygen Youth Health, Headspace Craigieburn, Glenroy, Sunshine and Werribee, and Travancore School are presenting a series of workshops throughout autumn that provide an overview of different mental health diagnoses affecting children and young people.  These workshops aim to support individuals and organisations to improve mental health and wellbeing in their communities by increasing your ability to identify, understand and respond to children and young people experiencing mental ill-health. Training is suitable for people working in community based settings with young people in the western and north-western region of Melbourne who may not have specialist mental health training.  Professionals may want to attend one or all sessions.    Each of these workshops run from 9.30 until 12.30 and are held at RCH Mental Health, Travancore Campus.   Please find the 2019 calendar and details of how to register here https://oyh.org.au/training-resources/training-our-local-community-sector
Dual Diagnosis	To be updated
Murdoch Children's Research Institute	To be updated
The University of Melbourne	To be updated
Infant Mental Health	"Engaging Infants" two day introductory training in infant Mental Health is held annually during the months of February of March. You can join the mailing list by emailing infant.mhs@rch.org.au and you will be notified of any upcoming training.   Thank you, Megan Chapman and Campbell Paul, Infant Mental Health Team

Please save this page in your favourites. It will be updated regularly with new events.

Family Violence Program

To access Resource Manuals Telephone: +613 9345 4877

'parkas plus' (2021 edition) - is intended to provide counsellors and clinicians with a thorough and flexible practical guide to running their own groupwork programs with children and families affected by family violence.  It comprises of 4 'child led' programs (jfk, fjk, plus, parkas & kaspar) that can be offered as independent programs, or as a layered response tailored to the identified needs of the children and families accessing support.
Available in hardcopy as part of a comprehensive training package only.

'parkas' (parents accepting responsibility kids are safe) - is the original program, developed in 1996 for children and their families affected by family violence.  Exclusive within this version is an overview of a pilot program for fathers who use violence and their children.
Available electronically only.

Feeling is Thinking (FisT) - is for children who have difficulty managing their strong emotions (either internalising or externalising behaviours), and who struggle to successfully manage positive relationships and/or resolve conflicts.
Available in hardcopy or electronically.

The Therapeutic Use of Games in Groupwork - provides professional with the when, why and how to use games therapeutically within groups, with children, adolescents, parents and carers. There is also a section specific to games that can be used during training for mental health, welfare and education professionals.
Available in hardcopy or electronically.

Addressing Family Violence Programs (AFVP) - is a collection of papers celebrating the work undertaken by the RCH Mental Health, specifically to address the impact of family violence on infants and children. It explores the theories and practice principles, along with insights and challenges relevant to this work.
Available in hardcopy or electronically.

Careers

RCH Mental Health is a large clinical and administrative department. We offer a range of positions from student placement, internships, fixed and permanent clinical and administrative roles. There are also opportunities for research and project work as part of our commitment to ongoing service improvement and participation in translational research.

As a service, we are committed to great care for infants, children and adolescents with mental illness and supporting their parents/carers and other community services. We offer a governance framework that wraps around the strategic, research and evaluation, clinical, operational, professional and stakeholder aspects of delivering a high quality service. In line with this we actively support staff wellbeing through supervision (clinical, operational and professional) and professional development linked to a regular performance review plan.

We are aiming to be a National Centre of Excellence for infants, children and adolescents with mental illness within the next few years. If you're interested in being part of this unique opportunity, want to continue to deepen your knowledge, extend your skills and abilities and be part of a service that is focused on great care, please make www.rch.mercury.org.au one of your favourites and sign up for alerts when new job opportunities arise.

Publications

RCH Mental Health staff have authored or participated in producing a number of publications relevant to infant, child and adolescent mental health.

Examples include:

• Books
• Edited books
• Peer-reviewed journals
• Clinical guidelines
• Service review, research and evaluation reports
• Government policies