Associate Professor Melanie Turner has been appointed the next Chief Psychiatrist for the Department for Health and Wellbeing, taking over from the incumbent, Dr John Brayley.
Associate Professor Turner has been the Department's Deputy Chief Psychiatrist since 2020, as well as being the inaugural Presiding Member of the state's Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board and a practicing child and adolescent Psychiatrist. She will take up her new position in May.
Alongside her work as a clinician, Associate Professor Turner teaches medical students and registrars at Adelaide University and is Chair of the Medical Board of South Australia and a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. She has a strong passion for child and adolescent psychiatry and completed a Churchill Fellowship in 2024, as well as working with the Australian Medical Council on the development of new specialty training accreditation for all medical specialities.
The Chief Psychiatrist is an independent, statutory officer who holds powers, functions and responsibilities as prescribed by the Mental Health Act 2009.
The role has governance and oversight for monitoring and influencing mental health care for the community, as well as undertaking visits and inspections of public and private mental health facilities when required.
The Chief Psychiatrist is supported by a team who assist with delivering their statutory responsibilities, while ensuring the rights if those with lived experience of mental illness are upheld.
As put by Blair Boyer
Associate Professor Turner brings extensive clinical, academic and governance experience to the role of Chief Psychiatrist, along with a long standing focus on child and adolescent mental health.
This appointment ensures continuity and strong clinical leadership across South Australia's mental health services.
Improving mental health services is essential to improving health outcomes for South Australians. I intend to have a strong focus on mental health, building on our government's efforts in the first term, and I look forward to working collaboratively with Associate Professor Turner on this.
I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Dr John Brayley for his commitment and passion for the sector and wish him well in this next chapter.
As put by Associate Professor Melanie Turner
I am extremely pleased to have been appointed the next Chief Psychiatrist for the Department for Health and Wellbeing.
I know, from having worked as the Deputy Chief Psychiatrist since 2020, that this position can at times be presented with challenges requiring a wealth of experience from across the field – something I look forward to applying my expertise to once in the Office.
