5. Teaching and Research: 1960s-1970s 

During the 1960s and 1970s, the care of the aged remained the dominant focus with remedial treatments initially introduced in the Geriatric Unit being extended to all patients. Increasingly new services and facilities associated with the research and teaching of aged care were added. These included the opening of the Roy Ivey Day Hospital in 1962, the Allied Health Services building in 1964, the Brunswick Sheltered Workshop in 1968, the transfer of ownership of the Henry Pride Wing at Kew from the Royal Women's Hospital to Mount Royal in 1973, and the commencement of the Geriatric Community Care Service for the City of Brunswick, also in 1973.

During this period Mount Royal became involved in the teaching of nurses, nurses aides, physiotherapists, social workers, occupational therapists and speech therapists. In addition, post-basic training of medical students was undertaken through the Victorian Postgraduate Geriatric Medical Training Program commenced in 1975. The increase in specialist medical staff appointments in the mid 1970s recognised the broader concept of the needs of the aged and ageing. These appointments included a sessional ophthalmologist, cardiologist, neurosurgeon and a consultant in geriatric psychiatry.

Building works included the remodelling of older dormitory wards into smaller more modern units and the construction of new wards to provide nursing home beds. Additional areas to incorporate rehabilitation services such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy rooms, and dental and podiatry surgeries were constructed in 1964. A new sterile supply area and further x-ray equipment were installed in 1970. With the increase in services came an increase in staff numbers from 189 in 1957 to 452 in 1963. In 1974, a Child Care Centre for staff was opened in a house in Park Street, opposite the hospital. Care was provided for 27 children until the Centre closed in 1988 due to financial difficulties.

Increasingly the concept of individual accommodation, rather than communal living, for the elderly was introduced. Princes Hill Village was opened in Carlton in 1961 and in 1971, The Mount Royal Lodge Hostel. With the construction of The Lodge, and later the carpark, the last traces of the Moonee Ponds Creek that had originally bisected the site were removed. By the end of this period accommodation was provided for 935 elderly people.

In 1975, the hospital, together with the University of Melbourne, established the National Research Institute of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine to undertake research, not only on the care of the elderly, but the social implication of old age. During this year the Denzil Don Medical Centre was also completed.

In 1979 a name change to Mount Royal Hospital occurred.