NSW Rural Psychiatry Project

The NSW Branch Rural Psychiatry Project is a joint project of the NSW Department of Health and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), NSW Branch. The aim of the Project is to support psychiatrists and psychiatry training in rural NSW through the implementation of a multifaceted approach to developing the rural psychiatry workforce. The overarching objective is to build a sustainable capacity for rural mental health service delivery.

Phase I of the project commenced in 2002 and concluded in 2008, with the collective impact of the Project initiatives resulting in many significant achievements: -

• An increase in access to basic psychiatry mental health services
• An increase in professional development and the capacity of psychiatrists within rural areas
• An increase in the number of psychiatry trainees based in rural NSW
• An increase in the number of consultant psychiatrists providing services to rural NSW
• An increase in engaging and communicating with the rural psychiatry workforce
• Encouragement and facilitating entry of rural based medical practitioners into the psychiatry specialty; and
• Facilitating communication between public mental health services and private practicing psychiatrists.

Phase II of the Project commenced in July 2009 for a further three year period (until July 2012) and aims to build on the achievements of Phase I with an increased emphasis on the following four key initiatives: -

• Further developing and strengthening peer support and continuing professional development
• Development of a Clinical Leadership Mentoring Program
• Continuation of the NSW Rural Psychiatry Recruitment Service
• Re-development of the NSW Rural Psychiatry Project Website (http://nswrural.ranzcp.org)

The Project is managed by a Steering Committee, convened under the governance of the RANZCP NSW Branch Committee, and includes representatives from the Branch, NSW Health, NSW Country Psychiatrists Association, Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, the Specialist International Medical Graduates Committee, a rural trainee, and both rural resident and outreach psychiatrists.

 Rural Health Continuing Education (RHCE) Stream One

The Rural Health and Continuing Education Sub-Program (RHCE) - Stream One is an initiative of the Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing and is managed by the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges. The Program’s objective is to enhance the delivery of quality clinical care in rural and remote Australia and to assist with the retention of medical specialists in these areas. The RHCE Program awards grants to Specialist Medical Colleges to develop and deliver Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities for specialists and multi disciplinary teams.  

The RANZCP is proud to announce the following project has been awarded funding:

Practice visit coordination (3 year project)

The RANZCP will develop a coordination process for practice visits for rural psychiatrists and other rural mental health practitioners. In a Practice Visit, one practitioner visits the practice of another to review how well the practice meets the relevant profession’s practice guidelines. For psychiatrists, these are the RANZCP ‘Guidelines for Outpatient Psychiatric Practice’. Funding is available to support rural psychiatrists in all stages of a practice visit.

For more information about this project please contact Rachael Williams email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The RANZCP is committed to supporting the Continuing Professional Development of specialists practising in rural and remote Australia  For more information about the RHCE Stream One program visit www.ruralspecialist.org.au

Support Scheme for Rural Specialists (SSRS)

• The continuation of sub-speciality focused rural peer review groups to meet on a monthly basis via videoconferencing or teleconferencing;
• The creation of new rural peer review groups to accommodate additional participants if the need arose;
• The presentation of four videoconferenced seminars determined on the basis of questions arising from rural peer review meetings; and
• Web forum follow-up of seminars using the existing Rural Station website.

SSRS Webinar Presentations

Pdf files which the speakers used to accompany their online training seminars are available for download by clicking on the title of the presentation below.