Less
The main purpose of Millbrook Rise Hospital was to treat World War One veterans and their families but it also took private patients. Patients were treated for mental illness, alcoholism, and intellectual disability.
Millbrook Rise Psychopathic Hospital opened in Burnett Street across the road from Lachlan Park Hospital in 1934. The Tasmanian Veterans Trust paid for its establishment with funds given to it by the Red Cross after World War One. Under the Psychopathic Hospital Management Act of 1933, the State government took over the management of the Hospital. The Act also provided for the Hospital to give priority to ex-servicemen and their families.
The Millbrook Home Board managed the Hospital. It included several members of the Tasmanian Veterans Trust. The Secretary of the Board was also the Secretary of the Trust.
From the outset, Millbrook Rise had a close association with Lachlan Park Hospital. Although Millbrook Rise had its own nurses and attendants, Lachlan Park supplied the doctors and psychiatrists. Patients were readily transferred between the two Hospitals, which explains why a few adolescents sent to Lachlan Park went on to Millbrook Rise.
