Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service (NBIRS) on site this month to conduct the first Brain Injury Psychiatry clinic. Clinics will be held here quarterly for the service.
Dr Cartoon is a Psychiatrist specialising in brain injury. She is employed at Royal North Shore and Westmead Hospital after completing her brain injury psychiatry fellowship in 2019. The fellowship is an Australian first, and was developed to address the very limited resources available to brain injury patients with psychiatric and behavioural issues, and the difficulty in coordinating their care with mental health services.
A very significant proportion of patients with severe traumatic brain injury have psychiatric and behavioural problems. Many professionals can be helpful in managing these problems, but there is a specific role for a psychiatrist with experience in treating this population, especially around assessing severe depression, suicidality, psychosis, marked apathy and problems with aggression and inappropriate sexual behaviour.
We are pleased to welcome such a tremendous service to our team.
