Newsletter: October, 2025

_{Head of Department, Professor Chris Davey}

Department of Psychiatry Quarterly Newsletter – October, 2025

Message from the Head of Department

Welcome to the third edition of the Department of Psychiatry newsletter for 2025. It’s been a busy few months across the department with events and grant success announcements.

Over the past two months, we have held milestone events. We had the 100th anniversary of the Beattie Smith Lecture in August, featuring Professor Helen Milroy, and the 30th anniversary of the Alice Barber Lecture in October, featuring Professor Bronwyn Graham. They were both very well attended, and we received excellent feedback. Thanks to those who helped organise them, and we look forward to next year’s editions.

Congratulations to Professor Jason Thompson on his success in leading a grant commissioned by the NDIA, partnering with the Centre for Disability Studies to implement new processes for assessing the support needs of participants in the NDIS. This is very important work for the many people in the community with disabilities.

Phoenix Australia have been awarded a strategic partnership grant from the Latrobe Health Services Foundation, which will support their development of digital mental health tools for people living in rural communities. And I am pleased to have been awarded an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, the ‘Centre for Next-Generation Treatments for Mood Disorders’. We will work together with academics from The Florey, University of Sydney, and University of New South Wales on developing new treatment approaches for depression.

It is with some regret that I announce that Mahesh Jayaram has decided to step down from his university role as Course Coordinator for our Master of Psychiatry program. His leadership, integrity, and thoughtful approach will be missed.

Mahesh has made significant contributions to the Department’s teaching activities since commencing in 2013. He drove the development and coordination of the online Master of Psychiatry course, and has been instrumental in securing accreditation for our new non-award course, which will commence next year.

We will have the opportunity to formally recognise Mahesh’s contributions and farewell him later in the year at the End of Year Symposium & Awards event, and I hope to see many of you there. And Mahesh plans to continue to contribute to teaching in an honorary capacity.

In the coming days, teaching staff, including honoraries, will receive an email inviting Expressions of Interest for the Course Coordinator role. I encourage interested colleagues to apply.

Finally, keep an eye on your emails for more events coming up soon, including the Wellbeing in Ageing Symposium, Academic Seminar Series and the DoP End of Year Symposium & Awards.

Professor Chris Davey
Head, Department of Psychiatry

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