Professor of Intellectual Disabilty Mental Health appointed to University of NSW

Dr Julian Trollor will take up the first Chair of Intellectual Disability Mental Health at the University of NSW in February 2009 as Associate Professor.

The NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care has funded the position for five years. The Minister for Disability Services, Paul Lynch said the key objectives of the Chair of Intellectual Disability Mental Health were to:

• facilitate and support the development and delivery of courses in mental health and intellectual disability;
• lead the development of a research program in relation to people with an intellectual disability and mental health issues; and
• work with NSW Health to deliver psychiatric services to people with an intellectual disability and to assist in building the community of practitioners with expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of people with an intellectual disability and mental health issues.

Dr Trollor will be responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in mental health and intellectual disability to medical students, trainee psychiatrists, psychologists and other medical and allied health professionals.

The Chair, along with nine Advanced Psychiatric Fellowships in Disability Mental Health through the NSW Institute of Psychiatry are two NSW Government initiatives aimed at increasing the workforce capacity in relation to intellectual disability and mental health.