Hillview Child and Adolescent Clinic

The Hillview Child and Adolescent Clinic, in East Victoria Park, was established around 1985 as a government-run psychiatric service for voluntary patients aged 8 to 18 years. It had three components: an outpatient clinic, a 6-bed residential unit known as the WE Robinson Unit, and a 12-bed residential unit known as Hillview Hospital. Hillview closed in 1995 and inpatient services were transferred to the WE Robinson Unit at Bentley Hospital.

The Hillview Child and Adolescent Clinic had three components: an outpatient clinic and two residential units – the Robinson Unit and Hillview Hospital. In a parliamentary debate in 1994 (Hansard 1 June 1994, p.756), Hillview was described at some length by the leader of the Opposition. The ‘Robinson Unit’ reportedly had six beds for 8-18 year olds with ‘psychiatric disorders, who have anger management problems, and schooling problems associated with attention deficit disorder’. Children and young people at Robinson were described as possibly having ‘low intelligence’ but were ‘not legally defined as intellectually handicapped’. Hillview Hospital, which was situated in the ‘old Millen Hospital’ had 12 beds for 13-18 year olds who had ’emotional disturbances related to sexual, physical and emotional abuse, grief issues, schooling difficulties, eating disorders’ and ‘suicidal tendencies’. Children and young people resident at Hillview were able to attend Kent Street Senior High School and the East Victoria Park and Victoria Park primary schools while they were in-patients. In 1994, the average length of stay at Hillview was four months. According to parliamentary debates (Hansard 30 March 1994, p.11070), Hillview was described in the report of the National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness as a ‘model service’.

A review of the Hillview Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services, which was tabled in the parliament of Western Australia, found (Hansard 28 September 1995, p.8862): ‘evidence of: Rorts by nursing staff; poor record keeping; a dominant and inappropriate nursing culture; inappropriate out of hours contact between patients and staff; and inappropriate physical contact between patients and staff.’ The clinic had been closed earlier in 1995, due to a ‘lack of psychiatrists’ according to the Minister for Health’s speech when he tabled the review report. The Minister said the ‘mess’ identified in the review had ‘only now been uncovered almost 10 years after it started’. The review (Hansard 24 October 1995, p.9813) did not recommend taking any disciplinary action against staff but one of the former psychiatrists at the clinic, Dr Ian McAlpine, was reported (Hansard 14 November 1995, p.10639) to have been deregistered by the Medical Board in Western Australia.

Residential child and adolescent psychiatric services were continued by the WE Robinson Unit at Bentley Hospital after Hillview was closed in 1995.