Psychiatry Workforce Program evaluation

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (the Department) engaged Healthcare Management Advisors (HMA) to undertake an independent evaluation of the Psychiatry Workforce Program (PWP). The evaluation included an assessment of the implementation, appropriateness, and effectiveness of the PWP.

The PWP 2021–23 was one of a suite of measures funded by the Commonwealth under the 2021–22 Budget Mental Health Workforce packages to attract, upskill, distribute, and retain key mental health professionals to address mental health workforce shortages and maldistribution. The development of the Program is informed by the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Mental Health (30 June 2020) and Towards a National Whole of Government approach to Suicide Prevention in Australia (August 2020).

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP) has been funded to implement the PWP over four years (2021–22 to 2025–26). The PWP aims to improve access to high-quality mental health care for all Australians, focusing on those living in rural and remote areas. This will be achieved across four objectives as follows:

• increase the psychiatrist workforce and consumer access to psychiatric care by increasing the number of training places, including in rural and remote areas across Australia
• increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander psychiatry trainees
• promote psychiatry to medical graduates through early engagement of medical students
• develop a nationally recognised postgraduate vocational qualification in Psychiatry for medical practitioners, including general practitioners and emergency medicine specialists.

Key tasks of the evaluation included:

• Development of a situation analysis paper to understand the PWP
• Development of a monitoring and evaluation framework and cost analysis framework
• Development of an environmental scan to understand the broader context in which PWP sits
• Extensive stakeholder consultation through interviews, surveys, and focus groups with PWP participants and stakeholders
• Analysis of evaluation outcomes to identify opportunities for improvement and development of a final report with recommendations.

The project commenced in October 2023 and was completed in June 2025.