Psychiatry Workforce Plan

The NSW Health Psychiatry Workforce Plan 2020-2025 ('the Plan') seeks to support a skilled psychiatry workforce to maintain safe, effective and efficient mental health care systems in NSW now and into the future. The Plan was informed by stakeholder feedback and identifies who is responsible for delivering each strategy.

The Psychiatry Workforce Plan identifies nine strategies to support the psychiatry workforce meet the needs of people living with a mental illness, and the needs of their carers, families and kinship groups.

The nine strategies of the Plan fall under the following three domains:

Stabilising the foundations:

1. Align the workforce with forecast demand and delivery requirements.
2. Monitor the psychiatry workforce.

Building blocks:

3. Attract and support the future psychiatry workforce.
4. Support the psychiatry workforce to grow its management and leadership capability.
5. Provide effective working arrangements.
6. Support academic psychiatry to strengthen the workforce and the NSW psychiatry knowledge base.

Right people, right skills, right place:

7. Support development and growth of the rural psychiatry workforce.
8. Embed innovative approaches to attract and retain psychiatrists to outer metropolitan, rural and regional areas.
9. Strengthen connections between rural and metropolitan psychiatric services.

Initiatives designed to meet the strategic goals of the Plan are developed for 6 months, within 12 months, 1-2 years and 2-5 years.