{"id":255277,"date":"2025-07-11T04:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T04:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/255277\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T04:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T04:37:14","slug":"nurse-keith-donnelly-opens-communal-wardrobe-for-hospital-mental-health-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/255277\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse Keith Donnelly opens communal wardrobe for hospital mental health patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Troy Cavanaugh was admitted to hospital a few years ago, all he had was the clothes on his back and a small bag of essentials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Maroubra local, who lives with bipolar disorder, was seeking treatment for his mental health and found himself with a limited rotation of clothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was until his nurse, Keith Donnelly, showed him through a boutique walk-in wardrobe in a section of the Prince of Wales Hospital with clothing for him to not only peruse but to call his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The selection was good and basically you could browse, pick what you liked and what fitted,” Mr Cavanaugh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Troy Cavanaugh is among 6,000 mental health patients to benefit from Keith’s Closet. (ABC News: Gregory James Heap)<\/p>\n

Mr Cavanaugh said that without “Keith’s Closet”, he would have been stuck with the limited clothes he came in with.<\/p>\n

“If I didn’t have visitors or other means of getting clothes \u2026 I’d be wearing soiled clothes around,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The feeling when you pick something you like and can wear can make you feel better.<\/p>\n

“That’s why the closet is so brilliant.”<\/p>\n

Founder raids own wardrobe for patients<\/p>\n

Mr Donnelly said he repeatedly saw mental health patients lack basic necessities while working at hospitals in both Ireland and Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So in 2019, after emigrating to Sydney, he set out to renovate an unused area of the Prince of Wales Hospital into Keith’s Closet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This, for me, was about absolute kindness and dignity and to give [patients] their self-esteem back,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Donnelly said.<\/p>\n

The idea was to provide patients, at any point during their stay, with new and high-end second-hand clothing, toiletries and accessories free of charge in the hope it would make them look and feel good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The hardest part really was trying to locate a space, which was a seclusion room,” Mr Donnelly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But it was nice to transform that space into something really positive.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old said at first he would source clothing from either his or his wife’s wardrobes, but now the public had jumped on board.<\/p>\n

“[We get] donations from either Joe or Mary off the street, from sports shops. Clothing companies have also dropped off end-of-season stock,” Mr Donnelly said.<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers<\/p>\n

Volunteers sort donations at a warehouse in Alexandria before items are neatly stocked inside each closet. (ABC News: Gregory James Heap)<\/p>\n

Program expands<\/p>\n

This week, inside Shellharbour Hospital on the New South Wales south coast, Mr Donnelly and Health Minister Ryan Park shared a warm embrace as they unveiled the latest instalment of Keith’s Closet. \u00a0<\/p>\n

What was once an office space at the entrance to the hospital’s mental health ward now features rows of stocked shelves, mirrors, and hand-painted affirmations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Donnelly said that, since 2019, the program had expanded, with <\/strong>closets at two Sydney hospitals <\/strong>as well as a mobile van service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve supported 6,000 people so far,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

He said all donations were sorted by volunteers at a facility in Alexandria.<\/p>\n

\"Shellharbour<\/p>\n

Shellharbour MP Anna Watson and Health Minister Ryan Park at the opening of Keith’s Closet Shellharbour. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Mr Park announced $185,000 in funding for the not-for-profit closet last year to help expand its operations after learning of Mr Donnelly’s work at a community cabinet meeting. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“This, for me, is probably some of the best $185,000 we’ll ever spend as a government,” he said.<\/p>\n

“What Keith Donnelly has done here is added another layer of support for those people.<\/p>\n

“It will be a service that I know I’ll be donating to, so if anyone wants an old suit from a politician, I’m sure it’ll be the last thing that gets borrowed or picked up.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cut<\/p>\n

A ribbon-cutting and plaque-unveiling ceremony was held at Shellharbour Hospital’s mental health ward. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Mr Donnelly said he planned to unveil facilities at the Malabar Forensic Hospital and Lismore Base Hospital in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Troy Cavanaugh was admitted to hospital a few years ago, all he had was the clothes on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[98118,9459,28563,105,98116,98115,218,64260,70589,98117,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-255277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-goodnews","9":"tag-feelgood","10":"tag-government-funding","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-keith-donnelly","13":"tag-keiths-closet","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-nsw-health","16":"tag-ryan-park","17":"tag-shellharbour-hospital","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114832752638605291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}