Pathways and careers

Pathways to psychiatry

MBBS
(five years)		ORAny undergraduate degree (three years) plus Gippsland graduate-entry MBBS course (four years)
plus plus
Twelve month internships general hospital to
become a fully registered medical practitioner
plus
Basic training - (three plus years) including:
  • Core clinical skills
  • Ethical practice
  • Non-government organisations and consumer and carer involvement
  • Training in ECT and psychotherapy
  • Rural psychiatry
  • Indigenous psychiatry
plus
Advanced training (two plus years) focusing on one of these areas:

  • General psychiatry
  • Adult psychiatry
  • Addiction psychiatry
  • Non-government organisations and consumer and carer involvement
  • Training in ECT and psychotherapy
  • Rural psychiatry
  • Indigenous psychiatry

Psychiatry careers/sub-specialisations

  • Addiction psychiatry: deals with overcoming many forms of physical and psychological addiction, such as drugs, alcohol, or psychological addiction to sex or gambling.
  • Adult psychiatry: includes the treatment of conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, personality disorder and a range of anxiety disorders.
  • Child and adolescent psychiatry: focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral, psychological, and social disorders in children and adolescents.
  • Consultation-liaison psychiatry: specialises in the interface between medicine and psychiatry, usually taking place in a hospital or medical setting.
  • Forensic psychiatry: concerns the assessment and treatment of mentally disordered offenders, both in custodial and community settings, and assess risk of violence and re-offending.
  • Psychiatry of old age: includes areas such as epidemiology of late-life mental disorders, biopsychosocial aspects of ageing, and general medical problems common in older people.
  • Psychotherapy: explores connected meaning and motivation which underpins feelings, thoughts and behaviour to help understand complex human nature.