How do you say goodbye to your home aftermore than 20 years? With a farewell party of course!
After months and months of planning, the reality of moving into the new Royal Children’s Hospital on Monday December 5 set in when over 200 crates arrived at William Buckland House, No 6 and No 8 Gatehouse Street. It felt like we’d been invaded by orange and blue aliens as offices and corridors were inundated with empty crates waiting to be 
filled with the contents of Centre for Adolescent Health. This was not only a chance for a big clean out, but staff found themselves reflecting on the depth and volume of work produced over 20 years.
In the week leading up to the move we held a final briefing session in the William Buckland House seminar room. Centre for Adolescent Director, Professor Susan Sawyer produced a photo presentation featuring past staff and significant moments in the Centre’s history and passionately reflected on the years of advancing young people’s health from William Buckland House. Professor George Patton, Director of Research also spoke of the significant research produced by staff over 20 years and the new opportunities for strengthening collaborations in the future.
With the bulk of packing completed, it was time to farewell our old home with a party in the courtyard Lots of past staff members joined in the celebrations where there was much reminiscing, laughter, some sadness and another rousing speech by our Director.
The new Royal Children’s Hospital provides a wonderful space for our adolescent patients and their families. It houses state of the art educational and teaching facilities that will support quality teaching within our undergraduate and postgraduate training programs. 
It will also allow us to grow our professional collaborations with The Royal Children’s Hospital, the Department of Paediatrics at The University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.
Some things won’t change; our commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of
young people by advancing knowledge, practice and policy remains undiminished.
Specifically, the Centre for Adolescent Health will continue to provide health care services in the community for the most disadvantaged young people through the Young People’s Health Service at Frontyard (CBD), a primary care service for homeless youth, and through the Adolescent Forensic Health Service, a 
primary health and specialist forensic health service located in Park Street, Parkville.
Just as adolescence is viewed as the 2nd critical developmental period, filled with opportunities as well as risks, the Centre for Adolescent Health sees the move to the RCH as its 2nd critical period: we are excited about the many benefits of being located within the new hospital.
P.S. Well we’re here now; we’ve had our first day at the new RCH. Yes it’s different, but we’re all settling into our new desks and offices with a sense of excitement. We have unpacked our crates! We look forward to the new and exciting advances to be made in adolescent health over the next 20 years.
Photos from top, left to right:
Di Garner, Craig Hodges, Sarah Glover, George Patton & Susan Saywer.
Alex Crooke, Stephen Hearps, Angela Khor, Lisa, Meagan Hunt, Rony Duncan.
Libby Hughes, Erica Allen, Sam Van Staalduinen, Stephanie Plenty.
Mick Creati, Cathy Crock, John Toumbourou.