New Kimberley Mental Health Clinical Director brings passion for working with regional communities

As the new Kimberley Director of Clinical Services Mental Health, Dr Huw Raggatt is focussing on the unique challenges of mental health service delivery in a region that spans almost half a million square kilometres.

Having worked extensively with the Biripi and Worimi peoples in regional New South Wales, Dr Raggatt said he is passionate about using his role to support Aboriginal communities across the Kimberley.

“We may be working with less than half that population here, but it’s an enormous area with lots of community outreach.”

The Kimberley region has approximately 200 Aboriginal communities and over 34 different Aboriginal language groups, with Aboriginal people making up 45 per cent of the population.

The Kimberley Mental Health and Drug Service provides specialist mental health, alcohol and drug services to Kimberley communities, as well as acute inpatient psychiatric care for referred patients in both the Kimberley and Pilbara regions.

As the service’s new clinical lead, Dr Raggatt brings years of experience to the role – graduating in Medicine from Bristol University in 1990 and then specialising in Psychiatry, before moving to Australia in 1998.

“Originally, I was only coming out from the UK for a year, but when I went home to the UK, I realised I didn’t love it, so I moved to Newcastle.”

Around that time, Dr Raggatt first visited Western Australia and the Kimberley region on an extensive motorbike trip around Australia.

“I travelled across the Nullarbor to Perth and eventually made my way up to Broome, so I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a bit of the state already,” he said.

Dr Raggatt said he was keen to get out to remote communities as much as possible, to meet with residents and clinicians. 

“It’s been great getting around the region and meeting the team and assess their needs, looking for ways to support staff on-the-ground.

“Last week I got to spend time in Kununurra and the East Kimberley which was wonderful.

“We know that recruitment and retention has been challenging not just here but in all regional areas, but one of the positives is that we’re seeing more and more registrars looking to take up an opportunity to expand their skills in a remote location.

“I’ve been really impressed by the registrars wanting to come and train here.

“The future is bright.”