About the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre

Telephone: (08) 8222 1600
Fax: (08) 8222 1608

For all emergencies phone 000.

Street address
207-235 Hampstead Road Northfield South Australia

Postal address:
207-235 Hampstead Road Northfield SA 5085

Centre profile

Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre (HRC) provides general inpatient rehabilitation services for people suffering from stroke, other neurological and medical disorders, orthopaedic conditions, and amputations. It has a 120-bed capacity and is a campus of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

In addition to the general rehabilitation wards, Hampstead has a Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit, a Care Awaiting Placement Ward and a Transitional Ward.

The HRC utilises a multidisciplinary team approach comprising specialised therapy, nursing, medical, counselling, and other highly trained staff to help people maximise their functional outcomes, with the aim of returning home.

Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre Mission Statement

Maximising independence and optimising lifestyle through rehabilitation. Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre provides rehabilitation services for people suffering from:

  • stroke, other neurological and medical disorders
  • orthopaedic conditions and amputations
  • Severe burns

The facility is situated in spacious garden surroundings in the suburb of Northfield, 10 kilometers north-east of the Adelaide city Centre.  Rehabilitation is a process of restoring function through re-learning lost abilities or finding new ways of doing everyday activities to maximise lifestyle. Rehabilitation is very different from being “treated” in an acute hospital care setting.  In all areas trained allied health, medical and nursing staff work with clients, client’s families and friends, and others, to design and implement rehabilitation programs using an integrated team approach.

Allied Health staff

Allied health staff used in rehabilitation may include:

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapists provide services which develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and functional ability throughout life. They play an integral role in the inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation of patients.

Occupational therapy

Occupational therapy (OTs) work with individuals to facilitate health and wellbeing through engagement or re-engagement with their everyday tasks. These may include:

  • self-care including bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, feeding
  • household and community - including cooking, cleaning, shopping
  • work/school
  • leisure/recreational activities.

Being able to participate in these everyday tasks helps people fulfil their role as worker, parent, partner, sibling and friend.

Speech pathology

Speech pathologists offer assessment and management of communication and/or swallowing disorders to inpatients.  They assess the nature and extent of the speech, language, communication or swallowing disorder and then provide the appropriate treatment through individual or group therapy sessions and training and education for the relatives and friends.

The aim is to maximise the person's ability to communicate effectively with staff and relatives and to be able to eat and drink safely.

Dietetics

Dietitians help to promote good health through proper eating and education. They have the skills and training to provide food and nutrition advice to meet all individual health and lifestyle needs. They develop and modify diets for all dietary needs and provide artificial nutritional needs to patients unable to consume food normally. 

Social work 

The main tasks of professional social workers can include a variety of services such as case management which links clients with agencies and programs that will meet their psychosocial and physical needs:

  • advocacy - assisting clients and the people involved in their life, through the hospital system
  • counselling - listening and helping clients reach a solution best suited to their situation.

Psychology

Psychologists help individuals to deal with issues related to everyday life, impacted by the condition that requires rehabilitation for example, spinal cord and brain injury.

Neuropsychology 

Neuropsychologists provide in-patient and outpatient psychometric assessment of brain injury and brain impairment. These assessments are used for rehabilitation planning, guardianship application and to assist in patient care, and to help patients and their families/friends gain an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.

Exercise physiologists 

Exercise physiologists have a specific interest in the physiology of exercise. Their duties include monitoring and assessing cardiovascular and metabolic effects and the mechanisms of exercise during exercise, and exercise for cardiac and musculoskeletal rehabilitation.

A range of outpatient services support consumers in their ongoing rehabilitation including:

  • Outpatient clinics 
  • The Centre for Physical Activity in Ageing (CPAA) provides:
    • exercise rehabilitation and health promotion in self equipped gym
    • exercise laboratory facilitates the conduct of fitness testing within rehabilitation and research programs
    • water based programs that are conducted in the hydrotherapy pool
    • conduct various “off campus” programs which utilise the facilities of   different community groups/organisations.

Access appointments

All external health professionals wishing to access patients of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, either via direct assessment, intervention or viewing case notes, are required to apply for an Access Appointment via the relevant discipline head. An application form is required to be completed, including details of:

  • qualifications
  • proof of current registration where applicable
  • proof of current professional indemnity insurance
  • declaration to abide by all Royal Adelaide Hospital policies and procedures pertaining to the professional discipline.

Contact should be made with the discipline head to ensure this application is approved prior to accessing patients or their records. For coordination of care, external health professionals are expected to liaise closely with clinical staff of Royal Adelaide Hospital who are involved in the management of the patients they are accessing.

Performance data

Data on our key performance areas is publicly available through multiple sources. For ease of access visit the Central Adelaide portal.

History

A History – from then to now (PDF 75KB)

Corporate focus

Rehabilitation is defined in the Standards document Australian Faculty of Rehabilitation as "that part of the science of medicine involved in the prevention and reduction of disability of handicap arising from impairments; and the management of disability from a physical, psycho-social and vocational viewpoint". (AFRM 1995).

We recognise that the process of managing disability is quite distinct from acute medicine, which is concerned with defining pathology and minimising impairment, and that the two areas are complimentary and necessary to coordinate it and comprehensive health care.

The key objectives for all Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre Staff is to work in partnership with clients to maximise independence and abilities and to optimise lifestyles following injury or illness. Other objectives are:

  • professional excellence - to promote the professional development of clinical and non-clinical staff in their specialised fields through training and research support.
  • client focused outcomes - to promote innovative outcomes management in partnership with clients which respects their culture and their values
  • excellence in rehabilitation - to promote continuous improvement in the development.

Private patients

At the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, you can choose to be admitted as a private patient. Admission as a private patient has benefits for both you and the hospital. Download the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre - private patients information brochure (PDF 208KB) (printable).

For more information please visit the attending hospital as a private patient page.