Deakin welcomes Federal Government funding for rural and regional mental health education

9 July 2010

Deakin University today, Friday 9 July, welcomed funding from the Federal Government to enhance its innovative mental health teaching program for rural and regional students.

The grant of $336,120 will be used to establish videoconference facilities at Deakin clinical schools in Geelong – where the majority of teachers are based – and in Warrnambool, Ballarat and Box Hill, where significant numbers of students undertake mental health clinical placements.

The Head of Deakin’s Medical School, Professor Brendan Crotty, said that the funding would enable Deakin to improve the delivery of teaching to medical students in rural and regional areas.

“Deakin’s Medical School is already highly regarded for its innovation in teaching, and this equipment will reinforce that reputation by providing leading-edge technology for the delivery of mental health teaching,” he said.

“The goal of our medical program is to create a cohort of doctors who are skilled and motivated to pursue a career in medicine in rural and regional areas, either as specialists or general practitioners.”

Professor Crotty said that the shortage of specialist psychiatrists and clinical academic teachers in regional and rural centres presented a challenge for teaching mental health to students in regional areas.

“To address this, we have developed an innovative mental health teaching program that will be delivered online using multi-media lectures and live interactive online tutorials.

“This funding will enhance that program by using high definition video and high capacity network links to create a true sense of being in the same room, allowing us to deliver teaching of the highest quality to students in regional areas,” Professor Crotty said.

Deakin University’s School of Medicine is Victoria’s first rural and regional medical school, located in a purpose-built facility at Deakin’s Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, with clinical sites in Geelong, Ballarat, Warrnambool, Western Victoria and the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.