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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