Psychiatrists treat patients and work with the patient's general
practitioner and other primary health care providers, families and
carers of patients, and the general community. The work of
psychiatrists includes the prevention, management, and relief of
suffering caused by a range of developmental, emotional,
behavioural and cognitive disorders.
Training is primarily in the apprenticeship model, with
registrars working alongside psychiatrist supervisors in
multidisciplinary clinical teams. Clinical experience in a variety
of areas is required, via rotation through training attachments in
which experience is gained in adult psychiatry both in inpatient
and community settings, consultation-liaison psychiatry in a
general hospital, old age psychiatry and child and adolescent
psychiatry. Additional subspecialty psychiatric experiences may
include rehabilitation, forensic psychiatry, drug and alcohol
services, etc. During these attachments trainees must receive at
least three hours of clinical supervision per week and at least one
hour per week of individual supervision, for at least 40 weeks of
the year.
There are about 80 trainees in Auckland and Northland. Whangarei
is linked with the Auckland programme and has a satellite programme
which recruits its own registrars and where it is possible to
complete basic training, and some aspects of advanced training. All
Auckland-based trainees are expected to rotate around a variety of
inpatient units, community mental health centres and subspecialty
teams across the three Auckland DHBs. It's important to have a car
and to be able to drive.
Training takes 5 years in total. The first three years are Basic Training, which is a series of six-month supervised runs in different subspecialties. Written and clinical examinations are usually taken in the 3rd year of Basic Training. Basic Training also requires caregiver, NGO and consumer-orientated activities and the completion of 2 case histories – a first-episode psychiatry case and a psychotherapy case.
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