I'm Dr Mary Emeleus. I am a GP and a Psychotherapist and currently now I'm a first year psychiatry
registrar in Cairns. I have been a Medical Educator for GMT until quite recently.
So I originally did my university in New South Wales, a New South Wales uni and then I did
my internship in the Illawarra so mostly at Shell Harbour Hospital. Then I applied for
GP training in North Queensland. So I did my training with the RACGP training program
which I finished in about 2001. I did my fellowship then. I did an advanced rural skills post
in mental health as part of that. So that was as a psychiatry registrar in Cairns which
is exactly the same job as I'm doing now, seventeen years later.
All of the places that I've worked I've found things that I liked in all of those places.
So I'm not sure that it's about a particular kind of person, because I think you can find
a place that suits you, whatever your interests. And I think the key thing is not to be scared
about being in a rural or regional area that you're gonna be alone or out of your depth.
I think in this day and age, you're very well supported, including through your training.
So if you're, if you're really adventurous and you love a challenge then you might end
up in a one or two doctor town and if you're someone that, that's not your thing, there
are plenty of places in rural Australia that will welcome all kinds of doctors.
RACGP can do an extended skills post in mental health which would be six months. All the
advanced rural skills post which is twelve months. And there is slightly different assessment
requirements for each of those. The RACGP does not have an exam specifically to the
mental health post so you do you need to meet the curriculum requirements, you need to see
a certain number of patients for counselling and have some supervision for that and you
need to work with people with certain kinds of problems and you need to do a formal course
in cognitive behaviour therapy. That doesn't have to be you know a masters degree, there
are lots of really good you know two day courses including one that I deliver for GMT with
some other colleagues. The ACRRM requirements they are also case studies and competencies
that need to be ticked off and then there's a stamps exam at the end of it specific to
mental health.
I think that the best thing to do would be to just talk to one of the local medical educators
and be linked, there is a particular person, Dr Clare Jukka in medical educator in GMT
who carries the I guess the portfolio of looking after the mental health special interests
registrars, so the best thing to do would be to get in touch with Clare and then she
would talk you through how to apply.
The case consultation groups are really valuable. We, I think it's really important to have
some form of what we would call supervision. The peer group may well perform that function
but it's also really helpful sometimes to have an individual supervisor that you might
keep seeing overtime. ACRRM has a group of people with a special interest in mental health
and the RACGP are national faculty for specific interests as a psychological medicine network
and then I'm involved with something called the Australian Society for Psychological Medicine
which is a national small group of GP's with mental health special interests and that organisation
we're working on developing regular case consultations groups by webinar so that doctors from anywhere
can participate in those and get that support from peers all around Australia.
To have the opportunity to progress the mental health and the psychotherapy which has always
interested me and the background of medical training and the knowledge of the body, it's
just enabled me to learn different forms of counselling quite quickly because I had that
background, but also to see how things integrate with each other, and this is it has just,
it's given me so many opportunities in my professional life. I think if you're a person
who has an interested in counselling and people and the human condition, this is such a worthwhile
thing to do, even if it's not going to be your, to define your career in the same way,
it will equip you really well for whatever you do and it's really rewarding.