Shrinking the Kimberley: remote area psychiatry in Australia.
The Kimberley, the northernmost region of Western Australia, is still largely an empty wilderness. About twice the size of Victoria, it has a permanent population of some 22,000. Since 1987, the Health Department of WA has provided a psychiatric service to the region, but the practice of psychiatry in such a vast and remote area has proven to be very different from that in larger centres. This paper summarises three years' clinical experience in the region.
D000328:Adult; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000639:trends; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000639:trends; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000639:trends*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000639:trends; D014904:Western Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D000095283:Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples