General Meeting to be held at the Melbourne Club.
October 14, 2023
6.30 pm – 11.30 pm
Dress – Black tie
Dr Jenkins is a consultant psychiatrist whose subspecialties include consultation liaison psychiatry and women’s health. She has held a range of roles in both public and private psychiatry and the NGO space: most recently working as the Director of Clinical Services for South -West Mental Health in WA.
Dr Jenkins has had a long standing clinical and academic interest in health and wellbeing of health care workers and was the Medical Director of the Victorian Doctors Health Program for over 10 years. She is a founding member of and chairs the board of Hand n Hand Peer Support, is part of the Pandemic Kindness Movement and chair of the advisory group for the Safer Care Victoria Well Being Centre.
In her other main area of advocacy, Dr Jenkins is Chair of the Migrant and Refugee Mental Health Partnership and Chair of the RANZCP Asylum Seeker and Refugee mental health network.
Dr Jenkins has had extensive involvement psychiatry related medical education and professionalism. She is a former President of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and is the immediate-past Chair of the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges: she has been a member of the Australian Medical Council (AMC) for the past four years: she was on the steering group for the National Medical workforce strategy.
Dr Jenkins was the recipient of the AMA women in Medical Leadership award in 2022.
Keeping both the medical and legal professions mentally healthy has never been more pertinent. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic has emphasized ways in which we are failing to do this.
After a brief outline at historical aspects of mental health in both professions, Dr Jenkins will discuss how being “mentally healthy” is currently conceptualized.
She will then present in depth, some of the more recent and current challenges to our wellbeing, refering to recent research and public health models.
An overview of current services and resources will be presented before Dr Jenkins goes on to discuss ways in which we could optimize how we care for ourselves, our colleagues, and our professions.