RANZCP homepage
Sachinie Vithanage
AMSA 2025 Rural Psychiatry Placement Bursary Reflection
Sachinie Vithanage
Medical Student 5th Year at University of Newcastle
It is safe to say that my psychiatry rotation at Bloomfield Hospital in Orange (NSW), which served concurrently as my first ever rural placement experience, has left a lasting impression on me. Renowned for embodying excellence, safety, and patient-centred care, Bloomfield houses an extensive list of psychiatric services such as a 24h Mental Health Emergency Care Rural Access Program (MHEC-RAP), Involuntary Drug & Alcohol Treatment Unit (IDAT), Mental Health ICU (MHICU), forensic unit, child and adolescent unit, and multiple secure rehabilitation and long-term units. The opportunity to have experienced such a comprehensive psychiatry placement is a privilege that I do not take for granted.
My placement in Orange enabled me to garner unique insights into rural mental health care and its challenges. As mental health services are often situated hundreds of kilometres away in rural and remote NSW, patients experiencing mental health crises typically experience prolonged ED wait times and unnecessary site transfers for assessments. With the aim of combatting the vast unmet need for psychiatric services, the MHEC-RAP was established to provide virtual mental health assessments and care to EDs. Spending time at the Bloomfield MHEC base, I was astonished to witness the team providing care to residents living across an expanse of more than 445,000km2. It is evident that programs such as this enable us to make great strides in decreasing health system resource burdens, and in making the act of seeking mental health care a much less stressful one.
Additionally, during my time with the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service Drug & Alcohol team, I observed how we can optimise the delivery of culturally safe care through the routine involvement of staff such as Indigenous peer workers with lived experience. Interventions such as this can help combat some of the main barriers preventing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from accessing medical services, such as cultural inappropriateness and racism.
The high calibre of teaching provided by the Bloomfield psychiatrists and my weekends spent exploring the region’s famous wineries, hiking trails and gastronomy culture with students from other rural clinical schools, has cemented Orange as an unforgettable placement experience. Having chosen to spend my final year of medical school in Tamworth next year, I look forward to continuing my rural healthcare journey and embracing all the opportunities it brings my way.
My placement in Orange enabled me to garner unique insights into rural mental health care and its challenges. As mental health services are often situated hundreds of kilometres away in rural and remote NSW, patients experiencing mental health crises typically experience prolonged ED wait times and unnecessary site transfers for assessments. With the aim of combatting the vast unmet need for psychiatric services, the MHEC-RAP was established to provide virtual mental health assessments and care to EDs. Spending time at the Bloomfield MHEC base, I was astonished to witness the team providing care to residents living across an expanse of more than 445,000km2. It is evident that programs such as this enable us to make great strides in decreasing health system resource burdens, and in making the act of seeking mental health care a much less stressful one.
Additionally, during my time with the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service Drug & Alcohol team, I observed how we can optimise the delivery of culturally safe care through the routine involvement of staff such as Indigenous peer workers with lived experience. Interventions such as this can help combat some of the main barriers preventing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from accessing medical services, such as cultural inappropriateness and racism.
The high calibre of teaching provided by the Bloomfield psychiatrists and my weekends spent exploring the region’s famous wineries, hiking trails and gastronomy culture with students from other rural clinical schools, has cemented Orange as an unforgettable placement experience. Having chosen to spend my final year of medical school in Tamworth next year, I look forward to continuing my rural healthcare journey and embracing all the opportunities it brings my way.
It is safe to say that my psychiatry rotation at Bloomfield Hospital in Orange (NSW), which served concurrently as my first ever rural placement experience, has left a lasting impression on me. Renowned for embodying excellence, safety, and patient-centred care, Bloomfield houses an extensive list of psychiatric services such as a 24h Mental Health Emergency Care Rural Access Program (MHEC-RAP), Involuntary Drug & Alcohol Treatment Unit (IDAT), Mental Health ICU (MHICU), forensic unit, child and adolescent unit, and multiple secure rehabilitation and long-term units. The opportunity to have experienced such a comprehensive psychiatry placement is a privilege that I do not take for granted.
My placement in Orange enabled me to garner unique insights into rural mental health care and its challenges. As mental health services are often situated hundreds of kilometres away in rural and remote NSW, patients experiencing mental health crises typically experience prolonged ED wait times and unnecessary site transfers for assessments. With the aim of combatting the vast unmet need for psychiatric services, the MHEC-RAP was established to provide virtual mental health assessments and care to EDs. Spending time at the Bloomfield MHEC base, I was astonished to witness the team providing care to residents living across an expanse of more than 445,000km2. It is evident that programs such as this enable us to make great strides in decreasing health system resource burdens, and in making the act of seeking mental health care a much less stressful one.
Additionally, during my time with the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service Drug & Alcohol team, I observed how we can optimise the delivery of culturally safe care through the routine involvement of staff such as Indigenous peer workers with lived experience. Interventions such as this can help combat some of the main barriers preventing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from accessing medical services, such as cultural inappropriateness and racism.
The high calibre of teaching provided by the Bloomfield psychiatrists and my weekends spent exploring the region’s famous wineries, hiking trails and gastronomy culture with students from other rural clinical schools, has cemented Orange as an unforgettable placement experience. Having chosen to spend my final year of medical school in Tamworth next year, I look forward to continuing my rural healthcare journey and embracing all the opportunities it brings my way.
My placement in Orange enabled me to garner unique insights into rural mental health care and its challenges. As mental health services are often situated hundreds of kilometres away in rural and remote NSW, patients experiencing mental health crises typically experience prolonged ED wait times and unnecessary site transfers for assessments. With the aim of combatting the vast unmet need for psychiatric services, the MHEC-RAP was established to provide virtual mental health assessments and care to EDs. Spending time at the Bloomfield MHEC base, I was astonished to witness the team providing care to residents living across an expanse of more than 445,000km2. It is evident that programs such as this enable us to make great strides in decreasing health system resource burdens, and in making the act of seeking mental health care a much less stressful one.
Additionally, during my time with the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service Drug & Alcohol team, I observed how we can optimise the delivery of culturally safe care through the routine involvement of staff such as Indigenous peer workers with lived experience. Interventions such as this can help combat some of the main barriers preventing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from accessing medical services, such as cultural inappropriateness and racism.
The high calibre of teaching provided by the Bloomfield psychiatrists and my weekends spent exploring the region’s famous wineries, hiking trails and gastronomy culture with students from other rural clinical schools, has cemented Orange as an unforgettable placement experience. Having chosen to spend my final year of medical school in Tamworth next year, I look forward to continuing my rural healthcare journey and embracing all the opportunities it brings my way.
