In Conversation With… Dr Ruth Vine, Dr Sarah Cavanagh and Priseena Radha

Dr Ruth Vine is Australia’s first Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Mental Health. Ruth provides policy advice on critical mental health issues impacting the Australian community due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and champions Commonwealth policy development and implementation activities to better integrate the Australian mental health system.

Ruth is a consultant psychiatrist and has more than 25 years’ experience – most notably working for for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, and holding positions of Deputy Chief Psychiatrist, Chief Psychiatrist and Director of Mental Health. She has chaired the AHMAC National Mental Health Standing Committee, the National Mental Health Workforce Committee, and National Safety and Quality Committee. Previously, Ruth was the Executive Director of NorthWestern Mental Health, a division of Melbourne Health from 2013 to 2019. NorthWestern Mental Health is the largest mental health service in Victoria, covering a population of approximately 1.4 million people across a number of growth corridors.

Ruth is a member of the Board of Forensicare, the Board of Mind, and the Medical Practitioners Board (Victoria). Ruth holds a Bachelor of Medicine and a Doctor of Philosophy from Melbourne University, a Bachelor of Laws from La Trobe University, and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

Sarah is a clinical psychologist who currently works part-time in private practice at Rebalance Psychology in Canberra and in a clinical lead role in mental health at the Department of Health. In clinical practice Sarah works with adults, children and young people who are experiencing mental health difficulties, having difficulties in their relationships, education or work or who want to enhance their wellbeing or achieve personal goals.

Sarah has a particular interest in working with young people, their parents and families and, prior to joining Rebalance Psychology, worked as a Clinical Psychologist in a headspace centre in Melbourne. Sarah is keen to support parents in their parenting role from the early years through to teenage years and early adulthood because we know that children and young people who experience consistent, warm, responsive and predictable caregiving have better outcomes and these types of relationships can also service to protect children from adverse experiences they may have.

In addition to clinical work, Sarah has also been working in mental health policy and program development at a national level with both government and non-government agencies for over 20 years.  She has worked on the successful KidsMatter program for early childhood services and primary schools and authored a number of articles about children’s social and emotional development and mental health.  Sarah’s current role is within the Mental Health Division at the Australian Government Department of Health where she is the clinical lead for the development of the Head to Health National Mental Health Platform.

Priseena is a recent graduate of Mental Health Nursing and comes from prior experience as a Registered Nurse. She completed her Bachelor of Nursing in India with five years of acute medical experience, and came to Australia in 2018. After completing the requirements of AHPRA, she started working at the Royal Melbourne hospital in 2019, and since then has worked mainly in the Acute Medical Ward, including Cardiology and Neurology departments. While working in these wards she dealt with a patient who had a history of mental illness, and this experience inspired her to become a Mental Health Nurse.

Priseena began her Mental Health Nurse training in 2020, and has been working in eating disorder units and adult inpatient settings since then, finding that implementing a patient-centred care approach has helped her safely deal with challenging patients. She has found a passion for implementing least restrictive practices in her patient care and hopes to conduct research to reduce further restrictive practices and elimination of seclusion rooms in mental health settings.