Sadness simmers inside this Melbourne hospital ward. But it’s a lifeline for people suffering a mental health crisis

Located just outside Melbourne’s CBD, the mental health, alcohol and other drugs hub at St Vincent’s hospital has treated about 10,000 patients since it opened six years ago. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in the emergency department at one of Melbourne’s busiest public hospitals, St Vincent’s. Over a loudspeaker, a nurse announces a code grey: an attack on a staff member. It punctuates a cacophony of yelling voices, buzzing machines and groaning patients. Police mingle amid the chaos while people wait on stretchers or strung over chairs outside.

Immediately next door, the hospital’s mental health, alcohol and other drugs hub is quiet and, for the most part, calm.