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WA keen on mental guest houses

European lessons: Mental Health Minister Helen Morton. Picture: Simon Santi/The West Australian

The State Government could adopt radical mental health reforms that allow unwell people to be treated in suburban "guest houses" that shun locked doors and restraints.

Mental Health Minister Helen Morton, who recently visited Europe as part of a mental health delegation, said the trip had confirmed the need to move away from institutional-type mental health care and towards more early intervention that was community based.

The group visited the north-east Italian city of Trieste, which over 35 years has wound back its traditional mental hospital.

Instead, the city has developed a series of neighbourhood clinics that provide services to people in their homes, or at the clinics which are open 24 hours a day and maintain some beds for use in emergencies, without any waiting lists.

Mrs Morton said Trieste had four community mental health centres for a population of 240,000.

The centres operated as street-front facilities where people could get help early and were treated more like guests than patients, with no locked doors or use of restraints.

"This city has become a world leader in mental health reforms and what they've done is phenomenal, with a huge emphasis on enhanced human rights," she said.

"They are 35 years ahead of the rest of the world in closing down their stand-alone psychiatric hospital and significantly reducing their reliance on acute inpatient services."

Mrs Morton said that as sections of Graylands Hospital closed, more services in the community would be needed and the guest house approach would be considered.

She believed the reforms used in Trieste could be included in WA's 10-year mental health plan.

"It's very consistent with our plan already, but what they do in Trieste is provide all their crisis mental health care in community centres and there are no locked doors, seclusion or restraints used," Mrs Morton said.

"We might be able to commence something along these lines as part of the mental health plan, because we're looking at developing new services."