Open Day a success

Despite being the first rainy day in months, over 150 visitors braved the weather to experience first-hand St John of God Richmond Hospital’s famous hospitality and find out more about the hospital’s trauma services.

26 Oct 2017

26 October 2017

Demonstrations of mindfulness and yoga were popular as was the demonstration of equine therapy with beautiful horse, Vashka gracing the lawn.

Hospital caregivers baked tempting treats for the cake stall and volunteered to face paint and fire up the sausage sizzle.

Br Julian Liddiard’s offered tours of historic Belmont House, with over 90 people going through the house and finding out about the history of the mansion and the Brothers’ establishment of the hospital at Richmond.

Exhibitions were on show from 12 partnering organisations and many have committed to support our next Open Day scheduled for the new year.

A thankful exhibitor commented, “St John of God Richmond Open Day provided a great opportunity to network with other support services that we weren’t aware of and create new relationships.”

St John of God Richmond Hospital Chief Executive Officer Steve Brooker said the prompt for the event came after speaking to servicemen and policemen who had just finished our Trauma recovery program (PTSD).

"Although very complementary about our services, they said not enough people knew about them. They made the suggestion to have a Trauma Open Day so that their friends/colleagues or 'middle managers' could come along to find out about us so they could really get the help they needed,' he said.

"I thought this was a great suggestion and as a direct result of that consumer feedback we organised a Trauma Open Day."

St John of God Richmond Hospital has a long history of caring for survivors of war and occupational trauma, running nationally recognised treatment programs for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder since 1994. We partner with the University of New South Wales and The Black Dog Institute to lead research into trauma and mental health.