Eating disorder facility still not built after five years
A $7 million eating disorder treatment centre announced for Adelaide in 2019 remains unbuilt, with no end date in sight a year after construction was expected to begin.
A new purpose-built centre for the Statewide Eating Disorder Service at the Repatriation Health Precinct Site (Repat) was announced in 2019, with $5 million of federal funding from the former Morrison Government and $2.1 million raised from the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation.
The centre is a collaboration between SA Health, Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation and Flinders University.
The centre would see eating disorder research conducted by Flinders University, which said in a 2019 announcement the new precinct would “give South Australians the right environment to deliver eating disorders treatment, currently offered at the older and smaller SEDS facility in Brighton”.
A 2018 issues guide for the Repat’s reactivation prepared by the state government said the existing Brighton SEDS was “not purpose-built and is not suitable for delivering the full model of care to treat patients with an eating disorder or support their families”.
“The present services are restricted by their space, occupying a clinical footprint that is approximately one third the size it requires.”
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Now, five years after the initial announcement, the new centre is yet to be open, and there have been no recent updates from SA Health or other parties as to when it may be complete.
A statement from SA Health provided to InDaily said “plans are progressing on the construction of a new residential facility for people with eating disorders at The Repat Health Precinct”.
“Following a period of engagement with partners, staff and lived experience and carer groups, we expect to make an announcement on the timeframes for the build later this year,” they said.
Health Minister Chris Picton said today in a statement that he had been “strongly advocating for this important project, which stalled under the former Liberal Government”.
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“Plans are well-progressed and we expect to make an announcement with Breakthrough soon,” he said.
Breakthrough executive director John Mannion told InDaily in September 2022 that the organisation was working with SA Health to finalise contracts, and expected to make an announcement “very soon”.
In a statement at the same time, SA Health confirmed it was “working to finalise the contract with Breakthrough for its delivery of the Statewide Eating Disorder Service (SEDS) and REDC at Repat”.
“SA Health has undertaken building demolition, and is undertaking infrastructure and in-ground service upgrades to prepare the site or handover to Breakthrough in readiness for construction to commence mid-2023,” it said.
The first meeting of an oversight committee took place on September 29, 2020, with the Breakthrough Foundation saying representatives from SA Health and Cheesman Architects had met to “set the scope of the project, establishing timelines and finalising the design of the building”.
Over a year later in November 2021, then Health Minister Stephen Wade said in Parliament that the design and building phase of the centre would be “18 months from the allocation of the contract of land from SA Health”.
That same year, a woman whose sister had received treatment for an eating disorder told InDaily she received an email from the SEDS at Brighton advising the Repat centre was still at least 18 months away.
In July 2022, Attorney General Kyam Maher said in Parliament that the project deed was “expected to be signed imminently”.
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