History of the Department
Students have been taught Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne ever since the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine in 1876. Initially, this consisted of a series of lectures and demonstrations at the main psychiatric hospitals of the time, in the first instance, the Yarra Bend Asylum, and then Royal Park Receiving House and the Kew Asylum, where Dr Beattie Smith lectured to medical students. Psychiatry had also existed as a medical specialty at the two main teaching hospitals of the University; Royal Melbourne Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital, since pre-Second World War days. Dr Alex Sinclair headed a unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Dr Eric Seale a unit at St Vincent's Hospital.
The Department, was first formally established with the establishment of the Cato Chair of Psychiatry in 1963, and the appointment of Professor Brian Davies, the Foundation Professor, who took up his appointment in 1964. The main driving force in the establishment of the Chair was the then Dean, Prof Sydney Sunderland, Dr Eric Cunningham Dax, Dr Una Cato and the psychiatric community at that time. The most prominent of whose advocates were the Victorian Council for Mental Hygiene, especially Drs Hal Maudsley and John Williams.
The University of Sydney had already established a Chair of Psychiatry in 1922, and perhaps this provided the impetus for Melbourne to follow, although the history of Clinical Chairs in all the clinical disciplines has been a relatively recent phenomenon in Australian medical academic life.
Advocates for the establishment of the Chair persuaded Dr Una Porter, a psychiatrist, and her brother Mr Alec Cato, children of the prominent philanthropist Mr Frederick John Cato, to donate an endowment from the estate of her late father to establish a Chair in his memory, thus creating "The Cato Chair of Psychiatry". This was part of a general strategy set in train by Dr Cunningham Dax to upgrade psychiatric services, the teaching of psychiatry and the education of doctors in psychiatric principles, which was part of his mandate in the wake of the Kennedy Report which had highlighted the atrocious conditions in psychiatric services in Victoria in the 1950s.
The first appointee, Professor Brian Davies, was a young psychiatrist from the Maudsley Hospital, who arrived in 1964 to a clinical base at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and the Parkville Psychiatric Centre, although his academic base awaited the building of a 7th Floor of the Clinical Sciences Building on the Royal Melbourne Campus. Professor Davies rapidly went about establishing a vibrant and active Department. He first recruited a Behavioural Scientist, Dr Mowbray, because of his strong commitment to the teaching of Behavioural Science in the pre-clinical years, who in turn recruited a young David Horne (who has completed 30 years in the Department). In addition, he established First Assistant positions at the three Clinical Schools, and appointed Dr Graham Burrows, Dr Ivor Jones and Dr Russell Meares (all of whom moved on to Chairs) at the Royal Melbourne, St Vincent's and the Austin Hospitals respectively. He also established the position of Academic Psychotherapist for Dr Reg Hook.
Professor Davies established an active teaching program for undergraduates based on clinical clerking and re-vamped the Diploma of Psychological Medicine, the first six Diplomas being awarded in 1944. He also recruited as Associates and Senior Associates, some of the most senior and distinguished psychiatrists in Victoria at the time, including Drs Richard Ball, John Cade, John Cone, Herbert Bower, John Grigor, Graeme Mellsop, Bill McLeod, Ed Chiu and numerous others. An active program of research was established primarily in the field of Depression and Affective Disorders and their treatment, and students were recruited for Master of Science, PhDs and MDs. Many of these went on to active roles in the Department and a significant number to Chairs both in Australia and overseas. These include Professors John Mann, Barney Carroll, David Jarrett, Tom Horvath and Lorraine Dennerstein.
A particular development, supported by Dr Dax at the time, was the establishment of the Parkville Psychiatric Unit as a teaching Unit of the University of Melbourne, under the leadership of Dr Richard Ball. As psychiatry expanded and the work of the Department developed further, the need for professorial leadership at the various Clinical Schools became apparent. In response to this, the then Dean, now the Vice Chancellor Professor David Penington, encouraged the development of Professorial Associates with the title Professor, to direct the services at the Clinical Schools. In 1978, Professor Richard Ball was appointed to such a position at the St Vincent's School and in 1983 Professor Graham Burrows to the Austin and Larundel School.
In 1985, following restructuring of the leadership of the Child and Family Psychiatry Service at the Royal Children's Hospital, which Dr Winston Rickards had led for many decades, Professor Robert Adler was appointed to the Professor and Director position there. While the service primarily operated in the Department of Paediatrics, it had a strong link to the Department of Psychiatry. Prof Adler resigned from this position in 1998 and the position is currently under review.
Professor Davies also produced a Textbook of Psychiatry "An Introduction to Clinical Psychiatry", which went through four editions during his period as Head. In addition, a wide variety of other books and scientific articles were published during his period as Chairman, and a large number of Masters, PhD and MD students graduated (Masters of Science 29, PhD 21, MD 17, BMedSci 15), as well as those continuing to take the DPM.
In 1990, after heading the Department for 26 years, Prof Davies retired and was succeeded by Professor Bruce Singh, who had previously held a Chair of Psychological Medicine at Monash University. Under Professor Singh, considerable expansion of the Department in various sub-specialty areas which had commenced in the second half of the 1980s, was accelerated with a series of externally funded positions throughout the then psychiatric hospital system. These included Associate Professors/Senior Lecturers in Geriatric Psychiatry at both Royal Park and Mont Park, appointments in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, Transcultural Psychiatry and General Psychiatry. These offered the opportunity for the Department to expand its areas of interest in a more formal way into the psychiatric hospital system, to support the funding provided by the University for the academic positions in its general hospital units.
In the undergraduate area, the Undergraduate Curriculum was revised and the students now spent their nine weeks in psychiatric units across the city, as well as involvement with the private psychiatric clinics. A new undergraduate Textbook was produced, edited jointly by Professors Singh and Bloch and involving academics from both the University of Melbourne's Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Psychological Medicine at Monash University. A 2nd Edition of this book is now being prepared with contributors from around Australia. An Undergraduate Education Committee was set up, the examination process was revamped, including the introduction of a formal Clinical Examination and more active attempts to train both teachers and examiners. The Department joined enthusiastically in the Quality Assurance and Student Feedback processes being set up by the University as part of its commitment to quality. The years of the mid 1970s through the 1980s saw a continued growth in the teaching of Psychology in the Behavioural Sciences Course by David Horne, Associate Prof and Reader in Medical Psychology, in the pre-clinical years of the medical course. The Medical Psychology Unit of the Department, under David Horne, also developed courses of psychology for both the Dental and Physiotherapy Schools. In 1995 the Medical Psychology Unit staff became full members of the School of Behavioural Science, but continue to play an active role in the Department of Psychiatry and have a formal adjunctive appointment to this Department. The relationship between psychiatry and psychology in this University is quite unique in Australia and holds great potential for innovations in all areas of clinical training, teaching and research.
In the postgraduate area, with the recognition of Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, as the specialised qualification in psychiatry, the Department terminated the DPM from 1995. Instead, the Department became actively involved with the Monash Department of Psychological Medicine in the establishment of a joint MMed/MPM Program, which has proved to be most successful and in which approximately 100 psychiatric trainees are enrolled, half of them in the University of Melbourne MMed in Psychiatry. The Department has also developed a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Sciences, which it offers in a number of areas, and has extended some of these to a Masters Program.
The Department continues to have an active research program although its foci have broadened considerably to involve the full spectrum of psychiatric disorders. Longstanding interest in areas such as Huntington's Disease (Chiu) and Mood Disorders (Burrows, Judd & Tiller) continue, but are now complemented with new areas such as Early Psychosis (McGorry), Psychiatric Epidemiology (Herrman & Harvey), Aboriginal Mental Health (McKendrick), Transcultural Psychiatry (Minas), Cognitive Neuropsychiatry (Pantelis), General Practice Liaison (Meadows & Judd), Women’s Mental Health (Buist & Dennerstein), Psycho-oncology (Bloch), Ethnopsychopharmacology (Lambert), and Old Age Psychiatry (Ames, Chiu & Hassett). It is actively recruiting students for its Masters and PhD.
The Biological Laboratory, originally located at the RMH, where the original work on the DST was conducted and then moved to a particular focus on psychopharmacology, has relocated to the Section of the Department at Austin Repatriation Medical Centre (headed by Associate Prof Trevor Norman).
The central location of the Department moved from the 7th Floor of the Clinical Sciences Building (a result of the development of a Private Hospital at the RMH) in August of 1994 and is now well established with additional space, on the 7th Floor of the Charles Connibere Building. The Department has continued to expand in terms of new academic positions funded by the Department of Health and Community Services, as well as by its associated hospitals.
Professor Helen Herrman replaced Professor Dick Ball on his retirement. Two new Professor/Directorships were appointed in the 1990s, Professor David Copolov - Head of the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, which has a close association with the Department, and the establishment of a Professor/Directorship with funds granted by the Department of Veteran's Affairs to create a Centre for War Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, now headed by Professor Mark Creamer. In addition, a Professor and Director position (Professor Patrick McGorry) has been established to head the Centre for Young People's Mental Health, now the Youth Program of MHSky, and a Centre for Cultural Studies in Health located in the Department of Psychiatry as a component of the Faculty's Strategic Plan. New positions in Geriatric Psychiatry and General Psychiatry have also been created. These include the establishment of an Associate Professorship in a Section of the Department established at the Melbourne Clinic and filled by Associate Professor Schweitzer since early 1995, and a half-time Associate Professor position at Albert Road Clinic filled by Associate Professor Tiller.
The Department has been very successful in gaining a number of large research awards, the NH&MRC Schizophrenia Unit Grant and Program Grants from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation for the Early Psychosis Program headed by Professor Patrick McGorry, and the Caregiving in the Community Program headed by Professor Helen Herrman.
The Department has also, as a result of its size, been successful in strengthening its administrative functions with the creation of a Departmental Manager position in 1996 and two Regional Administrators, all funded by the Faculty, as well as additional administrative support at its Clinical Schools. Mr Allan Brown was appointed to the position of Departmental Manager in 1996. Mrs Elizabeth Horton who has been with the Department for more than 30 years and has been awarded a University Long Service Medal, fills one of the Regional Administrator positions. Ms Marinella Serafim was appointed to the other Regional Administrator position in 1997.
The Department has also established major Committees to co-ordinate its undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing and public education and research programs, as well as groups co-ordinating its psychopharmacology research, its initiatives in IT and its commitment to internationalisation. It has also established interest groups in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Public Health and Women’s Mental Health.
Strong collaboration has been developed with Paediatrics, through the Centre for Adolescent Health, as well as other Departments within the University, particularly the Department of Pathology, with links through Professor Colin Masters.