Abstract
The last few months of 2002 were very busy. General Council met in October and a report on the meeting can be found in this edition. Having been to quite a few General Council meetings as a Councillor and now as Honorary Secretary, I feel privileged to work together with those attending. As the President, Dr Wayne Miles, often states, there is a collective wisdom among Councillors that must be used to further the aims of our profession and the College. A harmony now exists among Council members which allows us all to focus on the business of running the College and the diversity of interests among members of General Council enhances these discussions.
The various interest groups of College members continue to work well. Some of this variety will be on show at Congress. The Special Interest Group in Rural Psychiatry will be hosting a half-day symposium to examine training and ongoing professional development issues and initiatives for psychiatry Trainees, psychiatrists, GPs, mental health nursing and allied health professionals. The Private Practitioners Network will also hold a session to showcase the activities of the group since its inception and to involve Fellows and Trainees in discussions about the Third National Mental Health Strategy. Each of the interest groups will hold their AGMs and host social functions during Congress to further enhance these cohesive and effective working groups.
I have been attending the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care Initiatives Implementation Group meetings. The initiatives were well summarized in the article by Ian Hickie and Grace Groom in the December 2002 edition of Australasian Psychiatry. On the whole there has been a good uptake of these initiatives by General Practitioners. The first pilot programmes providing access to Allied Health Professionals to provide non-pharmacological treatments are being trialled. The one aspect of the initiatives which still requires further development is the emergency telephone access to psychiatrists for General Practitioners. It is likely that several pilot programmes will be established to examine different ways of delivering this service.
The new Telepsychiatry Item numbers were introduced into the MBS in November. To access these, psychiatrists must complete a Telepsychiatry Certification Module. This module was designed for the College by Prof Peter Yellowlees through the University of Queensland. The module is available on the College website at http://www.ranzcp.org/news.htm. To log on to the course enter the username telepsychiatry and the password training.
Both the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care initiative and the new Telepsychiatry Item numbers have the potential to greatly improve the mental health care available to the Australian community. Both also have the potential to provide better access to mental health care in rural and regional areas.
I have also attended a number of SPGPPS (Strategic Planning Group for Private Psychiatric Services) meetings. The main focus has been on developing a strategy to deal with the outcomes of the Forum, which was held in August 2002, and looked at innovative service delivery models and funding models. This has created a lot of work for the various representative groups. At its meeting in December 2002 the group decided not to hold a Forum in 2003 and instead continue to focus on the issues raised at the last Forum.
At the meeting in December, Mr Allen Morris Yates presented some preliminary data from the SPGPPS Data Collection and Analysis Project, which has been collected by private psychiatric hospitals. It seems to indicate that the people admitted into private hospitals are severely ill and certainly not the ‘worried well’. More definitive data will be available next year. This is a very exciting project, which will provide useful data on private psychiatric inpatients.
The Academic Psychiatrists Network (APN) was established in Canberra in December. The group is chaired by Prof Bruce Singh with Prof Philip Mitchell as an alternate convenor. The group has formed working parties to look at a broad range of policy issues including MOPS, training of Registrars, recruitment and retention of academics, providing a better experience for medical students, research collaboration and the role of academics in service development. The APN will meet twice a year in conjunction with the ASPR meeting and the College Congress.
I have continued to chair the Private Practitioners Network. The network has continued to look in more detail at issues that had been identified as important at the first meeting in Brisbane at Congress. Several discussion papers have been distributed for comment. The plan is for these drafts to be finalized before General Council meets in May for consideration.
As you will have noticed, this edition contains the first three Clinical Practice Guidelines summaries on depression, bipolar disorder and panic and agoraphobia. The project is nearing completion and it is expected that the remaining guidelines will be published in the next edition of Australasian Psychiatry. The full versions of all guidelines will be published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry over the next 12 months. The guidelines will also be available on the College and the authors' websites.
Finally, after the October General Council meeting several Councillors met with Dr Grace Groom from MHCA and Prof Ian Hickie from beyondblue. We were asked to comment on the Thornicroft and Trotter Betts mid-term review of the Second National Mental Health Strategy. Indications are that in this year we will see the first draft of the Third National Mental Health Strategy. The College Executive strongly believes that a further National Mental Health Strategy is needed and wants to have a strong input into its development.
College Farewells Executive Director
We regret to announce that Craig Patterson has accepted the position as CEO of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and will be leaving us on 21 March 2003. On your behalf, we would like to congratulate Craig on this prestigious appointment.
As many of you are aware, Craig has had a number of serious health problems in recent times and has decided that a return to Sydney, where his medical and support systems are in place, would be in his best interests.
Over the last two years, Craig has worked closely with us to achieve a more inclusive and responsive College. As a result, the College is now seen as a significant player in health policy development by external bodies, governments and the community. The College has also increased its involvement in community debate on important social policy issues. These gains have been achieved at the same time as consolidating College strengths in education and training.
Although we may be losing Craig, we will not be losing momentum. We are committed to ensuring that these policy directions and the new culture within the Fellowship continue. We will be recruiting a new Executive Director with the qualities to assist us in driving this agenda forward.
As you can imagine, we accepted Craig's resignation with great sadness. His presence in the College over the last two years has been invigorating to say the least. He is leaving with our very best wishes for his future health and happiness. We will miss his professionalism, his dynamic character, his quick wit and his outrageous sense of humour. We look forward to building stronger links with the RACP and continuing the friendship for many years to come.