Alex’s story – finding hope for the future

Alex says a stay at the Bidi Wungen Kaat Centre in Victoria Park (Western Australia) has kick-started his mental health recovery journey and helped him picture a brighter future.

The 19-year-old had previously been in and out of hospital mental health services throughout a challenging five-year period. Alex says these hospital admissions were a mix of voluntary and involuntary, and often left him feeling dehumanised and unheard.

“My most recent admission to an acute mental health ward was involuntary and I felt as if, rather than giving me solutions, it caused more problems for me,” he said.

“I feel as if I was seen as the problem within society and I certainly felt like that was true, even thought it’s most definitely not true. I was at a point of my life where I had no hope and didn’t see any way out.”

Things changed when Alex was transferred to the Bidi Wungen Kaat Centre in September 2023. Also known as the St James Transitional Care Unit (TCU), the residential mental health service was established in 2023 to provide an alternative approach that in which specialised mental health clinicians from East Metropolitan Health Service and Mind Australia peer practitioners support people side by side.

Bidi Wungen Kaat provides two types of supportive care to suit the needs of service users:

• The Step Up Step Down stream provides targeted moderate to intensive support in short term residential stays
• The Community Care Unit provides less intensive support over a longer residential stay.

Alex says he felt warmly embraced like a human, rather than an object, at Bidi Wungen Kaat. The staff took the time to learn about and understand Alex’s situation, and identify goals for his future.

“TCU stabilised me and supported me to transition into the community. I’ve found that the holistic point of view and person-centred care is what worked for me, and being able to feel safe was a huge start for me,” Alex said. 

“One thing I remember from being a TCU resident was the simple fact there was no seclusion or containment room. The fact that there isn’t a room like this immediately made me feel safer, because in my head it told me that it wasn’t an acute ward like other services, which allowed me to explore my own freedom and rights as an adult.”

Alex says peer workers at Bidi Wungen Kaat had a significant impact on his experience at the service. Peer practitioners are mental health practitioners who are specially trained to use their experience of mental health challenges to empathise with and inspire others on their recovery journey.

“The peers at TCU guided and supported me along my recovery journey – they care and have that understanding of crisis and knowing what it’s like through their lived experience,” Alex said.

“Coming out of TCU I feel like I have a better understanding of self-advocacy; I learnt how to advocate for myself and what I needed in my care to address the power imbalances that I had built up in my head from previous services and experiences.”