Fourth dan black belt, bonsai enthusiast and renaissance art fan – our new Sydney Clinic General Manager, Adjunct & Associate Professor Steven Bernardi, has quite a few strings to his bow! He also brings deep experience in developing and managing mental health programs and services, and is excited about the opportunity to lead our mental health program across NSW and the ACT.
Tell us about your career to date
I have had such a wonderful and privileged career working in health it’s hard to pick moments in time that had the most impact, but I do have a couple of experiences that I feel are relevant to my new role with Healthscope.
My first management role was in 2000 at St. Vincent’s Hospital, where I was responsible for acute inpatient mental health services. What struck me was that it was the compassion and commitment of the team that made it such an dynamic place to work with a group of patients who through no fault of their own, had severe mental health needs. What I witnessed was that the key to a great admission in a big part was the experience that we provided, the way we make people feel is as important as a strong clinical evidence base and governance.
My road to Damascus moment was when I was fortunate enough to attend the 2010 Urban Health Conference in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Whilst visiting one of the favelas with a local social worker, I was given the opportunity to meet with a group of women who were responsible for a community hub which was part of a new and growing social housing estate. Their stories of how they had been able to emerge out of multi-generational poverty and the positive impact that was having on their families was simply inspiring. It was a tale of how from little things big things grow and that there is no good health, without good mental health.
Upon returning to Sydney, I was given the opportunity to lead the commissioning of Australia’s first young adult private mental health service, Uspace. This was a plan that Dr. Peter McGeorge QSO, and myself had been working on since 2007. Working with Dr McGeorge, we collaborated with mental health consumers, carers, psychiatrists, universities, clinicians and other stakeholders to design not just a therapeutic milieu for 16-30 year olds, but also the physical environment which from my experience in Belo Horizonte, I knew would be a critical success factor. In 2015 Uspace was launched and has been a resounding success in servicing the needs of patients and families struggling with mental health challenges.
What drew you to your role at Healthscope?
If I had to design my perfect role to be able to apply my skills and expertise, then this would be it! By chance, I actually worked as the Director of Clinical Services/Director of Nursing back in 2002, so I was familiar with the facility and was keen to see how it evolved since then. The icing on the cake for me was the opportunity to work hand in glove with my GM peers, in growing the quality of mental health services across NSW and the ACT. The fact that Healthscope has mental health as a strategic growth priority and is strongly supported by Steven Rubic the CEO and board, meant that there was great potential to make a community difference…that’s what drew me to the role.
What do you see as your opportunities / priorities in the role, and your aspiration for Healthscope’s NSW mental health operations?
First things first, make sure our current mental health services are performing optimally. How I do this is by getting to know our teams, our VMO’s and key stakeholders such as our patients and Local Health District colleagues.
I feel the opportunities are endless, however, my aspiration is to help lead innovatively the development of new mental health services that provide a life changing experience. We live in an ever growing experience and digital economy and the opportunity for Healthscope is to take a leadership role in the building the future of mental health services through compassion and wisdom matched with commercial acumen. A big ask, but incredibly exciting and as I’ve said to many, this has been the best start to any job I have ever had….and I’ve had some great jobs!
What are your interests and hobbies outside of work?
Well I have two, soon to be three children with our next little bundle of joy being due in July, so they and my partner Kate are high on my active interests! Apart from family related interests, my consuming passions are martial arts, food, bonsai and trying to keep fit (mostly so I can eat what I want!).
I’m a fourth dan black belt in Bujinkan Ninjitsu and in the pre-COVID days, would regularly travel to Japan to train. It’s the art of the “ninja samurai” and something that I’ve been obsessed with since being a young kid being in awe of David Carradine’s character Caine in the series Kung Fu. It’s just great fun and I have wonderful group of friends I train with. You tend to develop a strong bond and a healthy sense of humour when you're beating each other up. Having an Italian heritage, food is everything and I’ve been known to help out with chef friends of mine if they’ve ever needed an extra set of hands in the kitchen. Not surprisingly, I have a preference of Japanese kitchen knives. My interest in bonsai took off when a former charge nurse of mine Tim Castle, gifted me a bonsai from his collection of over several hundred. We grow all types of plants including herbs and veges in our backyard which is affectionately referred to as our “Peruvian rainforest”. I try to spend at least 10 minutes there every morning before work, it’s a little serve of mindfulness and nature. Other than the above, I love renaissance art (it’s all about the light), dabble in amateur photography and am obsessed with coffee!
