Victorian Branch

Branch office

►View full Victorian Branch page [Member sign-in required]

Branch Chair 

Dr Astha Tomar Astha is presently the Head of Youth Mental Health Services at Peninsula Health and also works at The Melbourne Clinic in private practice. She has been a part of the Victorian Branch Committee over the last many years and has been active in leading the policy response to COVID-19 and wellbeing of Health Care Workers, SafeScript, Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System and Productivity Commission Report in Mental Health and other policy statements and submissions produced by the Branch. Astha is committed to representing the Victorian membership to facilitate effective outcomes and looks forward to engagement from members in helping do this job better. She is a part of a great team with gender balance and cultural diversity which she has encouraged and sought out for over the last many years. Dr Tomar is ably supported by the Victorian Branch team and you can reach out to her via the team with any questions, concerns or suggestions on the email above.

Victorian Branch State Election Priorities 2022

►Improving the Mental Health and Wellbeing of the Victorian Community

Applications for first year psychiatry training positions in Victoria

Applications for the Victorian Psychiatry Training Program commencing February 2024 will open on 24 April 2023.

Application process:

Apply to the Victorian Psychiatry Training Program via the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria website allocations.pmcv.com.au.

Seek a training position with a Victorian hospital or clinical service.

More Information:

►Timeline and key dates for 2023/24 [PDF; 120 KB]

►Application and selection process - advice for applicants [PDF; 236 KB]

Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System is a once in a lifetime opportunity to design a mental health system which meets the needs of Victorians in the 21st century. 

►Latest updates on Branch activities related to the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System

Victorian Branch 2023–24 Pre-Budget Submission

The Victorian community requires timely and equitable access to the best available mental health and wellbeing treatment, care, and support; delivered within the public mental health and wellbeing system. This includes providing services that are evidence-based, specialist, culturally safe, diverse, trauma informed and available where they live. The access to services must not be limited by mental health or co-existing conditions, nor social, financial or postcode inequity. 
 
In approaching the RANZCP Victorian Branch Pre-Budget submission 2023–24, Branch members have discussed the essential contribution to the reform of the clinical workforce, including psychiatrists; to ensure evidence-based specialist mental health and wellbeing needs of the Victorian community are being met within the public system, where they live. The Branch provides key recommendations for continuous improvement of the mental health and wellbeing of the Victorian community aligned with safety, access, quality and outcomes. 

►Victorian Branch 2023–24 Pre-Budget Submission [PDF; 451 KB]

COVID-19

►List of Victorian psychiatrists available for COVID-19 healthcare workers

Victorian psychiatry workforce

A shortage of psychiatrists and maldistribution of the psychiatry workforce across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria means that the needs of mental health services are no longer being met. 

An analysis by the RANZCP Victorian Branch in 2015, commissioned by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) revealed the challenges facing Victoria's psychiatry workforce.

►Victorian Psychiatry Workforce Report [PDF; 2 MB]