NATIONAL: When Melanie was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder two years ago, it was a huge relief.
As a member of the Australian Defence Force who received the United States Bronze Star of Courage and worked in a unit in Iraq which supported the efforts to neutralise roadside bombs, her diagnosis perhaps shouldn't have come as too much of a shock.
But, the woman from Canberra says, even with excellent medical care provided by the army, she had trouble getting doctors to take her seriously.
"The humiliation of where you have fallen from, and then where you are at, is extreme and you don't want to talk about it to anyone," she said.
"Particularly for a girl in the military, where you spend your life seeking men's approval, you're definitely not going to open up to them."
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"I went to three different doctors in the military. I was saying I have nightmares, I'm just angry all the time - the classic symptoms of PTSD - and the last doctor I saw said 'look there's nothing wrong with you, you've got three children under five and you're a full time working mum, what do you expect?'."
"I went home and burst into tears with my husband, saying I must be a malingerer - because I think it's something else. So even these doctors, working in the military, didn't understand trauma and their first thing was 'you're a mother'."
Her diagnosis finally came under Dr Merrylord Harb, who is now the Allied Health Manager at the newly-opened Ramsay Clinic Thirroul, who taught her about how trauma injures and even physically changes people.
Looking around the new women's only hospital on Monday, Melanie said access to a service like it would have been life changing for her.
"Having a place here where you can be vulnerable and not judged and open to fully healing - that wasn't available to me," she said.
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"When I was at my worst, my children suffered. I would snap and yell and be completely unreasonable. So having a place to heal, also heals families and has a ripple effect out on everything."
Director of Ramsay Mental Health, Anne Mortimer agreed, saying the new clinic - which was transformed from a rehab hospital after psychiatrist Dr Karen Williams approached her to ask for a trauma-focused care facility - would "make a difference, and maybe even save lives".
"12 per cent of the Australian population, that's three million people, will suffer from PTSD in their lifetime," she said.
"Unfortunately the statistics tell us that around two million of these will be female. To date there is a real shortage of women's only services in mental health."
As well as helping women recover though it's inpatient program, Ms Mortimer said the clinic would also help create the next generation of trauma informed clinicians, by bringing in as many students and registrars as possible "so that we can be a part of our future education".
She said they hoped to launch virtual group therapy sessions for women living interstate and in other regions, to give access to continued care after their admission.
"We are also very pleased to announce that Ramsay Clinic Thirroul will also be able to offer the women of the Illawarra region access to these specialty programs, through our comprehensive onsite services for eating disorders, addictions, youth services, mood and anxiety, through the form of a day patient program," she said.
