Thomas Embling Forensic Mental Health

Thomas Embling Hospital (TEH) is a secure forensic mental health hospital. It provides both acute care and continuing care program, a specialised women’s unit and a secure intensive-care psychiatric unit.

Patients are generally admitted to the hospital from the criminal justice system. Thomas Embling Hospital is operated by Forensicare, the Statewide specialist of forensic mental health services in Victoria.

AECOM as PM commissioned Destravis on behalf of VHHSBA to review the 2016 Master Plan and associated Functional Briefs and to build on this work to further develop a site-wide campus plan for TEH precinct including a preliminary Concept Design for the purposes of preparing a Detailed Business Case.

The campus planning and associated bed yields per stages were considered with the stakeholder representatives from VHHSBA and Forensicare.

Following the zonal campus planning workshops, a preferred master plan option was agreed based on the outcomes and feedback on options and the agreed evaluation criteria. This was then progressed to concept testing and preliminary costing.

The preferred option comprises of a multi-story arrangement with over 300-beds in up to three stories for the inpatient units, an above-ground multi-story carpark, and a civic cluster of buildings centered around a number of existing heritage buildings that can be restored and maintained for adaptive use.

This proposed design has been developed to occur during three efficient stages so that the hospital remains operational throughout construction and bed yield is maximised within a short timeframe.

Destravis developed a functional brief for the complex facility, including low, medium and high secure areas. Destravis also developed and manages the master schedule of accommodation and provided health planning into evolving design to inform the feasibility study.