Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The NT’s new Chief Psychiatrist Dr David Mitchell says he will oversee the mental health of Territorians and brings military experience to the role

Transcript

The NT’s new Chief Psychiatrist Dr David Mitchell says he will oversee the mental health of Territorians and brings military experience to the role · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Know that the Northern Territory has a new Chief Psychiatrist
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  Speaker 1: whose key focus will be on mental health of territorians,
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  Speaker 1: and the appointment of doctor David Mitchell will bring the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory in line with other states and territories which
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  Speaker 1: have had someone in this role for quite some time.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Mitchell joins me on the show right now. Good
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  Speaker 1: morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, pleasure to be here, Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: And I apologize that we are running so late. Doctor.
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  Speaker 1: What exactly does the role of chief psychiatrist involve?
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  Speaker 2: It's a good question.
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  Speaker 3: I think you've summarized it really well in introduction. Every
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  Speaker 3: state and territory has a chief psochiatrist, and having a
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  Speaker 3: chief psychiatrist gives us that strategic leadership in that space,
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  Speaker 3: and it gives us a physition at the table. So
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  Speaker 3: the chief psychiatrist overseas reform within the Northern Territory, within
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  Speaker 3: the development and enhancement of services, the better quality, and
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  Speaker 3: governments overseeing the delivery of mental health. And to put
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  Speaker 3: it in a sort of a physical perspectives, the chiefs
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  Speaker 3: chiatrists meet regularly at a round table and discuss, you know,
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  Speaker 3: what's happening around the country. And how we can deliver
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  Speaker 3: mental health better. So I'm really excited to be able
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  Speaker 3: to be at the table and to represent the Northern
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  Speaker 3: Territory and to look after the health of all Northern
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  Speaker 3: Territory and.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Mitchell, it's sort of you know, it almost sounds
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  Speaker 1: like I'm thinking of that role, your role in the
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  Speaker 1: same context, almost as the Chief Health officer. You know, what,
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  Speaker 1: what sort of qualifications or what background do you need
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  Speaker 1: to be able to take on such such a role,
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  Speaker 1: such a big role. By the sounds of it, look.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's that's very analogous to the
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  Speaker 3: Chief Health Officer, probably more similar to the Chief Medical Officer.
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  Speaker 3: We have another position within the department. But you know
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  Speaker 3: that that's very true. I may have got a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of a head start because my wife the Deputy
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  Speaker 3: Chief Health Officer for some time in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: during the COVID pandemic. So the chief officer to clarify
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  Speaker 3: as normally a public health physician and they overlook the
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  Speaker 3: statutory authority of public health laws within the territory. The
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  Speaker 3: Chief helf Officer will be a little bit like that
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  Speaker 3: because we're going to move some of the statutory authority
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  Speaker 3: over to the chief psychiatrists, so I will have certain
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  Speaker 3: powers that now sit with the Chief Health Officer, will
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  Speaker 3: sit with the chief psychiatrist.
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  Speaker 2: Right, But you're right.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's a really good way of thinking about it.
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  Speaker 3: It's kind of like a chief health officer that looks
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  Speaker 3: after the mental health needs. So it's very very public
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  Speaker 3: health focus, just like.
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  Speaker 2: The Chief off officer.
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  Speaker 3: So in terms of my qualifications, obviously, I'm a psychiatrist,
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  Speaker 3: a fellow of the role Australian New Zealand College of
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  Speaker 3: Psychiatrists and also trained as a GP. I trained in
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  Speaker 3: Darwin twenty years ago. I'm a Fellow of the Australian
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  Speaker 3: College of Medical Administrators.
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  Speaker 2: I've got a military background which helps me.
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  Speaker 3: Make chaos or border out of chaos, which I think
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  Speaker 3: is the military specialty.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: I've got a few qualifications, but I think the primary
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  Speaker 3: qualification for the chief psychiatrist is you have to be
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  Speaker 3: a psychiatrist and you probably have to be passionate and
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  Speaker 3: want to take on that responsibility. Everything else is probably
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  Speaker 3: in acoutremont.
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  Speaker 1: And how I think that the fact that you've been
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  Speaker 1: part of the military as well is actually a really
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  Speaker 1: interesting aspect of that, and really interesting thing for us
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  Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory, given your role now that
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  Speaker 1: you've taken on, but also given the fact that we
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  Speaker 1: are a real military town.
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  Speaker 2: I think it is.
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  Speaker 3: There are GPS in Darwin, doctor Bernie Wesley that I
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  Speaker 3: trained with and was a medical officer with up in
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  Speaker 3: Darwin many years ago. So I'm very interested in the
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  Speaker 3: health of veterans, surbing members, and you know, I think
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  Speaker 3: it's a really important space.
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  Speaker 2: We obviously have.
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  Speaker 3: The Royal Commission into Veterans and Members Suicide coming up.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously that's a very triggering time for a lot of veterans.
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  Speaker 2: But hopefully a lot of good work.
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  Speaker 3: Will come out of that commission looking after the needs
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  Speaker 3: of veterans. So it's certainly something I'm interested. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 3: would say it's a local specific passion.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Now obviously or I'm assuming you'll be quite
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  Speaker 1: heavily involved in the establishment of the new mental health
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  Speaker 1: facilities that we are expecting in Darwin as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and I have been.
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  Speaker 3: I mean probably part of my I guess prerequisite for
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  Speaker 3: the role is that I've done that sort of work.
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  Speaker 3: So when I was in Melbourne working at the Austin
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  Speaker 3: I set up their emergency services and their short stays
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  Speaker 3: for chiatry service. So I'm being very excited to work
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  Speaker 3: with Ashford architects up here looking at the new sexped Sarah,
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  Speaker 3: which is the short state chatry unit that will be
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  Speaker 3: built adjacent to the emergency department.
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  Speaker 2: And there also be an eighteen new impatient unit.
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  Speaker 3: So the physical structure gets built, but you've got to
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  Speaker 3: get the governance and the foll is right and the.
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  Speaker 2: Mix of staff right, and you've got to have that
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  Speaker 2: clinical leadership that really sets the vision of.
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  Speaker 3: How they're going to run and what the model of
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  Speaker 3: cares are. So yes, very much involved.
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  Speaker 1: And what are some of the key challenges do you
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  Speaker 1: think here in the Northern Territory when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: delivering good mental health outcomes?
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's there's lots of challenges. If you look at
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  Speaker 3: the statistics, and we talk about them all the time.
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  Speaker 3: We have the highest rate of death by suicide.
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  Speaker 2: In the country. We have the highest rate of morbidity.
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  Speaker 3: I think they say about fourteen percent of our total
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  Speaker 3: disease morbidities mental health as opposed to seven percent everywhere
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  Speaker 3: else in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: We've got the tyranny of distance.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a lot of very sparsely populated areas of
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  Speaker 3: a country, you know, a lot of remoteness.
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  Speaker 2: So I think the challenges in meeting you know, some of.
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  Speaker 3: Those really difficult statistics and those difficulties of resource allocation
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  Speaker 3: and difficulties of remoteness.
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  Speaker 2: Now we have to look at what worksfirst. We have
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  Speaker 2: we can.
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  Speaker 3: Better recruit, how we can better retain staff, how we
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  Speaker 3: can lean into other technologies like chelly psicia tree to
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  Speaker 3: do some of the roles where we can't just easily
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  Speaker 3: get to a person that needs needs our help. So
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of a lot of challenges,
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  Speaker 3: but I think there's a lot of hope and a
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  Speaker 3: lot of innovation, a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Of things that we can do differently in Sparta.
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  Speaker 3: And I really really am optimistic about the next two years.
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  Speaker 1: And so from your perspective, you know, what are going
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  Speaker 1: to be those key priorities for you over those next
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  Speaker 1: couple of years.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's a few kind of immediate priorities. So we've
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  Speaker 3: been looking at a new mental health Act. A lot
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  Speaker 3: of people would be aware that you know, someone's acutely acute,
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  Speaker 3: the unwell and at risks themselves. For others, the mental
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  Speaker 3: health service is different to other areas admits, and that
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  Speaker 3: people can be treated and voluntarily.
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  Speaker 2: And sometimes that's an ugly necessity, but we.
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  Speaker 3: Wanted to be done in the safest and most dignified
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  Speaker 3: way where we respect people's rights, we respect their dignity,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, there's that.
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  Speaker 2: Balance of risk.
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  Speaker 3: And I think we need to bring our Mental Health
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  Speaker 3: Act in line with all the other states and territories.
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  Speaker 2: So that will be a key piece of.
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  Speaker 3: Work that we'll be doing in bringing in a new
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  Speaker 3: Mental Health Act. Obviously, some of the new services that
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  Speaker 3: will be developing, we'll have to look at quite a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the governance systems that either un in place or.
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  Speaker 2: We'd like to optimize.
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  Speaker 3: So certainly a lot of things, I mean, And one
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  Speaker 3: of the really key things I'd also mention is just
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  Speaker 3: bringing the care and consumer into the conversation. I think
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  Speaker 3: it's really important people with lived experience of mental health
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  Speaker 3: are brought more into the center of these discussions. Probably
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  Speaker 3: everybody you know either has had a mental health issue
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  Speaker 3: or has a loved one with.
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  Speaker 2: A mental health issue. Yeah, I think it's really important.
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  Speaker 3: Just having these conversations about distigmatizing mental health, making people
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  Speaker 3: feel they can easily access service and they don't feel
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  Speaker 3: embarrassed to do so, and that you know that everybody's involved.
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  Speaker 3: I think the thing about a chief psychiatrist is you
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  Speaker 3: don't want to be paternalistic and think everything's about the doctor.
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  Speaker 2: It's not.
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  Speaker 3: It's about the whole system and the community and how
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  Speaker 3: we all work together for better mental health.
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  Speaker 1: Well, doctor David Mitchell, the new chief psychiatrist here in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. I really appreciate you taking the time
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  Speaker 1: to have a chat with us this morning and you know,
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  Speaker 1: explaining the position a little bit more for us because
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  Speaker 1: it does indeed bring us in line with other states
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  Speaker 1: and territories. So appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 3: I really appreciate time to talk with you.
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  Speaker 2: Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. You two