The results of this study suggest that the psychosocial and medical management of depressed aged care residents can be improved by increasing access to specialist mental health consultation.

Objective: Despite the long history of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a psychiatric treatment modality in Australia, existing literature regarding ECT use and practices in Australia is limited. In this unique study, we report ECT provision in Victoria to adults aged 25 years and over from 1998 to 2007, based on complete data from all public and private treatment settings within the State; compare our results to previous literature in the field; and offer possible explanations for these findings as a basis for future research. Method: Analysis of statutory ECT service provision data collected by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist of Victoria. Results: ECT use declined overall from 2001 onward, followed by a small increase in use in 2007. Eighty per cent of patients received ECT for depression and 14% for psychosis. Sixty-two per cent of ECT recipients were women. Although patients aged 65 years and over were small in number, age adjustment of data was indicative of a higher utilisation rate in this group. With increasing age, the percentage of ECT recipients treated for depression increased, whereas the percentage treated for psychosis decreased. Sixty per cent of patients were treated in the public sector. Public-private sector ECT use did not differ greatly for depression, but more patients were treated in the public sector for psychosis. The majority of patients with depression received treatment voluntarily, but the converse was true for patients with psychosis. Unilateral electrode placement predominated. Conclusions: While utilisation rates gradually declined over the decade studied, patients continued receiving ECT in significant numbers, suggesting its role in treating severe mental illness is far from superceded. The present, population-level research cannot explain the causative factors underlying the patterns observed, but raises interesting questions for further investigation. Ongoing collection of statutory ECT data in a manner making it amenable to research applications is recommended.

There is widespread concern in Australia and internationally at the high prevalence of psychotropic medication use in residential aged care facilities. It is difficult for nurses and general practitioners in aged care facilities to cease new residents' psychotropic medications when they often have no information about why residents were started on the treatment, when and by whom and with what result. Most existing interventions have had a limited and temporary effect and there is a need to test different strategies to overcome the structural and practical barriers to psychotropic medication cessation or deprescribing. In this chapter, we review the literature regarding psychotropic medication deprescribing in aged care facilities and present the protocol of a novel study that will examine the potential role of family members in facilitating deprescribing. This project will help determine if family members can contribute information that will prove useful to clinicians and thereby overcome one of the barriers to deprescribing medications whose harmful effects often outweigh their benefits. We wish to understand the knowledge and attitudes of family members regarding the prescribing and deprescribing of psychotropic medications to newly admitted residents of aged care facilities with a view to developing and testing a range of clinical interventions that will result in better, safer prescribing practices.

Over the last two decades, Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has become an increasingly important part of psychiatry education and assessment in the Australian context. A reappraisal of the evidence base regarding the use of OSCE in psychiatry is therefore timely. This paper reviews the literature regarding the use of OSCE as an assessment tool in both undergraduate and postgraduate psychiatry training settings. Suitable articles were identified using the search terms 'psychiatry AND OSCE' in the ERIC (educational) and PubMed (healthcare) databases and grouped according to their predominant focus: (1) the validity of OSCEs in psychiatry; (2) candidate preparation and other factors impacting on performance; and (3) special topics. The literature suggests that the OSCE has been widely adopted in psychiatry education, as a valid and reliable method of assessing psychiatric competencies that is acceptable to both learners and teachers alike. The limited evidence base regarding its validity for postgraduate psychiatry examinations suggests that more research is needed in this domain. Despite any shortcomings, OSCEs are currently ubiquitous in all areas of undergraduate and postgraduate medicine and proposing a better alternative for competency-based assessment is difficult. A critical question is whether OSCE is sufficient on its own to assess high-level consultancy skills, and aspects of professionalism and ethical practice, that are essential for effective specialist practice, or whether it needs to be supplemented by additional testing modalities.