Supporting Mental Health at Upton House, Box Hill Hospital
Discussions were held with key hospital staff, including the Head Nurse and the Mental Health Physiotherapist, to identify items and programs that would best support patients’ mental health while in hospital and help build self-care skills after discharge. Staff advised that additional activities improve mood, spark joy, encourage physical movement, and support overall wellbeing—both physical and mental.
With this guidance, the project supports staff-led programs such as moving to music, supervised sports games, and other physical activities that promote strength, coordination, and balance & joy. Equipment provided includes hand grips, fit balls, sports balls, small weights for supervised use & a speaker to play music.
Other essential items address dignity and basic needs. Sanitary products were requested, as hospital-supplied options are often uncomfortable and inadequate. Food ingredients were also provided to support regular cooking classes, which staff report are extremely popular. These sessions teach basic cooking skills while encouraging social connection in a relaxed, natural setting. As one staff member noted, “Cooking groups are really popular on the ward as they teach skills and help patients connect with each other in a much more natural way.”
Basic beauty items, such as face masks and hair ties, provide moments of calm and welcome distraction. Coffee pods and snack foods were also requested to support mutual help meetings on the ward.
The project is delivered with the support of a Rotary Foundation District Grant. Rotarians liaise closely with hospital staff, collect and/or purchase items, and deliver supplies on a monthly basis.
The initiative also expanded to include Christmas gifts. Snack packs for all patients were generously donated and packed by It’s the Little Things Community and delivered to both
Upton House and the adjacent AIPU adolescent ward.
In addition, travel and cosmetic pouches were collected & other toiletries, which were thoughtfully assembled into a Christmas gift by ward staff.
Donations of items for the gift packs and some exercise equipment were generously contributed by members of Rotary Hawthorn, CWA Boroondara, Reformed by Pilates as well the wider Boroondara community (via BHRR), and of course the snack packs from It’s the Little Things Community.
This project is in addition to Small Comforts from Community. This project is a collaboration of Rotary Clubs providing a monthly delivery of care bags and clothing to a variety of public hospital mental health inpatient units, which staff say are greatly appreciated and provide comfort, dignity, and essential items for patients in a time of great distress.
Hospital staff report that this sustained support assists patient recovery and that the additional programs help reduce the likelihood of readmission.
Another wonderful example of “Together we make a difference.”