Heathcote opened in 1929 on Point Heathcote at Applecross. First known as the Heathcote Reception Home, this government hospital was for people with ‘recent and recoverable’ psychosocial disabilities, and sometimes housed children and adolescents. It closed in 1994.
The Royal Commission into Lunacy recommended in 1922 that a new hospital be built to treat people with an acute mental health condition. The Commissioners believed there was ‘no marked line dividing sanity from insanity; there are degrees intervening which must be recognised and provided for’. They described a movement away from the custodial model to a more active treatment model of care: ‘the patient goes through a period – varying in each case – during which skilled treatment, properly administered, will prevent an impending attack or successfully deal with it in its early stages’ (pp.6-7). Heathcote was to be that observation and treatment centre.
In its Report (p.7), the Royal Commission was specific in its description of the future ‘Acute Mental Hospital and Reception Centre’ – in what it should include by way of patients, facilities, staff and treatments; and in whom it should exclude.
From
1929
To
1994
Alternative Names
Heathcote Reception Home
Heathcote Mental Hospital
Heathcote Hospital
22 February 1929 - 1994
Heathcote was located on Point Heathcote in Applecross, Western Australia (Building Still standing)
