Overseas Trained Psychiatrists Representative Committee

The Overseas Trained Psychiatrists' (OTP) Representative Committee reports to the RANZCP Board via the CEO, and provides formal representation for all overseas trained psychiatrists and especially Affiliate Members within the College organisational structure. The OTP Committee consists of overseas trained psychiatrists from each Australian State/Territory and New Zealand. Only members of the College, both Affiliates and Fellows, can be appointed as committee members.

Overseas Trained Psychiatrists' Representative Committee Regulations [PDF; 132 KB]

Committee Chair and Committee Contact Information

The Chair of the OTP Representative Committee is Prof Saddichha Sahoo.

You can contact the OTP Committee on otp@ranzcp.org.

Current committee

OTP Committee members for 2021-2024:

Committee key responsibilities include:

• facilitating local support networks for OTPs
• representing the Committee on other College standing committees pursuant to the regulations of any such committee and be consulted in the recruitment and endorsement of OTP representatives on such committee
• recommending individuals for consideration for involvement on other key College committees, project teams and working parties from time to time
• providing advice on such initiatives that might assist OTP’s in their work experiences, acculturation and preparation for examinations for admission to Fellowship
• providing advice on potential representation by Affiliate Members on key committees and project teams
• facilitating forums to collect and disseminate information, to encourage debate and to promote the needs of OTPs generally
• monitoring all activities across the College that are of relevance to OTPs, to promote both coordination of those activities as well as efficient communication.

A Jurisdictional Member of the Committee will also hold the Overseas Trained Psychiatrists' Representative Committee Representative position on the respective Branch Committee.

Meeting frequency:

The Committee typically meet 5 times per calendar year:

• 1 face-to-face meeting held in Melbourne (6 hours in duration)
• 4 videoconference meetings (1 hour duration per meeting).

A committee member may also be required to respond to emails between formal meetings.

From the Committee

What we do

Some of the OTP Representative Committee's main goals include:

• Ensuring fairness for OTPs  
• Supporting OTPs
• Improve our “marketing” and communication.

Fairness is about pass rates exams, how OTPs are treated by the RANZCP, AHPRA, AMC, Department of Immigration etc. The Substantial Comparability pathway needs to be set up fairly; the Competency Based Fellowship Program too.

Support is about helping OTPs as a group and as individuals. Support in passing exams, maybe developing or supporting an exam preparation program. The Committee will communication regularly with all OTPs to identify possible avenues of support.

Marketing and communication is not a goal on itself, but a way to reach the first two goals.

Our mission is to ensure fairness for, and to support all, overseas trained psychiatrists.  

How to keep in touch with the OTP Committee

There are several ways to keep in touch with the OTP Committee and for us to reach you:

• From time to time we will need to ask for your opinion directly and with a short response time and will send out emails directly to you; we ask that you please read these and provide your feedback. You can receive these emails from a committee member directly or via College staff members who support the OTP Committee administratively. Please keep us updated with your current email address.

Get involved

To have a more powerful voice in the RANZCP and to be able to reach our goals, the OTP Committee needs as many overseas trained psychiatrists as possible to be involved in the activities of the RANZCP.

• Become an OTP representative. Look out for the call for nominations early in the year and nominate as an OTP Representative.
• Become a RANZCP Affiliate Member. 

Resources

The Distribution Priority Areas (DPA) for GPs and Districts of Workforce Shortage (DWS) for specialists are updated every year to ensure the latest available data is used to accurately target distribution. The DPA and DWS systems facilitate placing medical practitioners with location restrictions (International Medical Graduates and Australian Bonded Doctors) into communities of greatest need across Australia.

Further details about these classification systems can be found at the Department of Health website.