Across the College: September highlights

In this month’s Across the College, we feature highlights from Victoria, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.

Victoria

The 2026 Victorian State Election Platform, Strengthening the pillars of mental health reform, presents Branch priorities for the next four years. The four priorities are: Care that follows the person, not fragmented services; A pathway to recovery, not a revolving door; A health response, not a default crisis pathway; and Specialists who stay, not services that quietly shrink.

These priorities have been shaped by consultations with psychiatrists across Victoria and reflect what members are seeing every day, as well as their experience of the substantial reform undertaken since the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. The Branch looks forward to engaging with all political parties and will work constructively to deliver these reforms.

New South Wales

Dr Paul Fung, Deputy Commissioner of Mental Health Commission of NSW, also attended the meeting and generously gave his time to outline the Commission’s role and plans. 

The Branch warmly congratulates Professor Swaran Singh on his elevation to the peerage as Baron Singh of Solihull. Professor Singh has made influential contributions to research and service development in early intervention in psychosis, ethnic inequalities in mental health care, and the transition from child to adult mental health services.

Australian Capital Territory

Dr Fiona Wilkes won this year’s Teresa Foce Award and Dr Virginia McAndrew the Meritorious Service Award for their remarkable contributions to psychiatry. The Branch welcomes Dr Marisa Paterson MLA, the new Minister for Mental Health and Minster for Health in the ACT and looks forward to working with her.

Western Australia

The WA Branch Annual Dinner will be held on 24 October and offers a great opportunity for members to cultivate collegiality, connection and community. The Branch is also hosting a special presentation on 15 October in collaboration with the WA Eating Disorders Outreach and Consultation Service and RichMind WA. Dr Walter Kaye, Emeritus Distinguished Professor at University of California San Diego, will present on Neurobiology, genetics and eating disorders.

Queensland

The Branch welcomed members to Cairns for the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age 2026 Conference and the event was well received. The conference debate on whether old age psychiatry is the natural home for managing dementia – with an old age psychiatrist arguing for geriatricians and a geriatrician making the case for old age psychiatry – was a lively highlight.

Tasmania

Branch members enthusiastically supported this year's Tasmania Branch Conference, a sold-out event centred on the theme: How high can psychiatry fly? Learnings from the myth of Icarus.