Member for Bathurst Paul Toole announced mental health facilities in the Central West will benefit from a share of $350,000 in funding for minor capital works and equipment as part of a NSW government investment to upgrade mental health infrastructure across the state.

Orange Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service has been allocated $40,000 to construct a sensory garden and update technology, furniture and other small-scale refurbishments at its Bloomfield facility.

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The Mental Health Intensive Care Unit at Orange Health Service is another beneficiary, sharing in $289,000 with two Lachlan-based facilities to create a sensory garden of its own.

It will also use the funding to install a virtual aquarium, purchase sensory modulation equipment, refurbish its courtyard, and purchase Aboriginal paintings to hang on the walls.

Bathurst Health Service will receive $17,000 for purchasing sensory modulation equipment such as weighted blankets, rocking chairs, squeeze balls and colour-changing lamps and updating furniture.

The projects were funded in consultation with the region’s Local Health Districts and working with consumers and carers.

Minister for Mental Health Tanya Davies said LHDs and specialty networks have received a share of $20 million to make important improvements, the first initiative of the NSW government’s $700 million Mental Health Infrastructure program.