Ever wondered what it's like to be a psychiatrist? This series explores a day in the life of psychiatrists who work in different areas of psychiatry.

In this article, we hear from Dr Kelly Ridley who is an Addiction Psychiatrist based in rural Western Australia.

A Day in the Life of a Rural Addiction Psychiatrist

I never wanted to be a psychiatrist. I thought psychiatry was interesting enough, but I never wanted the kind of job where I would sit in an office all day. I wanted travel and urgent care and adventure! But I also wanted to work in the country, and have a good work life balance, and do research. Luckily, I found Addiction Psychiatry and Rural Psychiatry.

What is Addiction Psychiatry?

Addiction Psychiatry is where medicine and psychiatry collide. The addiction training we do is the same as that done by GPs and Physicians training in Addiction Medicine and involves mastering the different biological, psychological, behavioural and social aspects of addiction and its treatment.

Rural Psychiatry does just what it says on the tin and now I live in a town of about thirty thousand people, five hours‘ drive from Perth. The combination of these areas of practice results in an eclectic mix of work during a typical day.

What does my typical workday involve?

I arrive at the hospital by about 8am and start the day by indulging my own dependence on caffeine. Once that craving has been satisfied I will look and see how many new patients were admitted overnight onto the 16 bed Acute Psychiatric Unit and see how many new and follow up appointments have been booked into the outpatient clinic. The only constant is that every day is different!

At the moment I am supervising a medicated polysubstance detox, using Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat a patient with catatonia, using Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat a patient with his first episode of depression and working up a couple of patients with first episode psychosis.

In the afternoon I will supervise the junior doctor running our Smoker's Clinic and do a video consultation for a patient 4 hours away. Before I go home I will be organising a family meeting which will introduce a family to myself and to our service. First impressions count even more when you are the only service in the region.

After this I will be heading over to the local hospice and follow up on some education and guidelines regarding suicidality in palliative care and screening for substance use disorder in the hospice.

What is it like working rurally?

The rural side of my job means that I get phone calls and emails from a variety of people across the Great Southern Region which covers 39,000 square kilometres. I provide a lot of phone advice and rely heavily on mental health workers who may be located many hours away.

Sometimes I am lucky enough to explore the region myself visiting sister clinics or conducting home visits. In wildflower season or when the sun is shining on the ocean this is a particular pleasure.

What non-clinical work am I involved with?

When not working clinically I can be found writing grant proposals, research papers and position papers. Being part of a small group of Addiction doctors in WA means there is a large scope for improvement in clinical practice. Every couple of weeks I can be found giving a talk on aspects of addiction and psychiatry to other mental health professionals, GPs, trainees and students.

The teaching is the best part about my job, because the more knowledge everyone has, the better the outcomes for our patients and the easier my life gets!

What do I enjoy about Rural Psychiatry?

This isn’t the life I thought I would be leading ten years ago, but I wouldn’t change it. Hard work in a small town has benefits not only for patients and their loved ones, but for the reputation of the service and the whole community.

Some days I see a patient who says that they saw a friend or family member get benefit from our service and so they decided to reach out too. Reactions like that makes all the hours in the car and clinic and ward worth it.

I love my town and I love my job. I always encourage people who aren’t sure about country living to give it a go and see how much more rewarding and varied it can make the practice of medicine and psychiatry in particular.

Disclaimer: Any patients mentioned in this article have been deidentified and created for the purposes of this article. This article may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). By accessing the article you also agree to the RANZCP Website Terms of Use Agreement.