Clinical Psychologist and Consultant Psychiatrist discuss the Mental Health Crisis in Australia. The most common types of mental illness, the impact of COVID-19 on mental health, and programs for coping strategies and mental health service delivery. Hear from Dr Whittington as he explains depression using metaphors and how to apply practical strategies for those who are suffering with this crippling mental illness.

Prof Philip Morris

Dr Morris has medical qualifications MBBS (Hons), BSc(med) (Hons), and PhD. He is qualified in psychiatry and addiction medicine in Australia and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP). He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age and a Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry. Dr Morris is a Fellow of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine (FAChAM) of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).

He is qualified in general adult psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry in both Australia and the USA and is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). Dr Morris is a member of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age and the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry of the RANZCP. He has been a Certified Independent Medical Examiner (CIME) with the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners (AmBIME). Prof Morris is a Distinguished Fellow and Board Director of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatry.Dr Morris is Executive Director of the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association. He is Medical Director of the Gold Coast Memory Disorders Clinic. He is President of the Gold Coast Medical Association. He has a private psychiatric, psychogeriatric, addiction medicine, and medico-legal practice on the Gold Coast. He is a member of the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Reference Committee and is Senior Medical Advisor to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Dr Morris is Psychogeriatric Advisor to the Northern Territory Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service.

Dr Morris is Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University. Dr Morris has held professor positions in psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland, and at the School of Health Sciences at Bond University.

He has been Medical Superintendent of Macquarie Psychiatric Hospital, North Ryde NSW, and Director of Mental Health for the Gold Coast District Health Service. He was the Foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Post-traumatic Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. He was medical director of Mirikai, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre on the Gold Coast. He has been a member of the Queensland Compensation Commission (Q-Comp) Medical Assessment Tribunal – Psychiatric, and was chairman of the RANZCP Continuing Professional Development Subcommittee.

His clinical and research interests include the psychiatric care of older adult patients, medical and surgical patients (consultation–liaison psychiatry), neuropsychiatry/psychogeriatrics, post-trauma syndromes, clinical drug trials, and co morbid drug and alcohol and psychiatric conditions. Dr Morris undertook post-graduate research and clinical training in the USA. He has published many scientific articles and reports and has won a number of competitive government research grants as well as pharmaceutical industry support for drug trials. He has conducted clinical drug trials in Australia since 1995. He is an external assessor for the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Dr Morris has extensive experience in medico-legal assessment for a range of legal jurisdictions. Dr Morris is trained in the application of the American Medical Association Guides for the Assessment of Permanent Impairment, the Psychiatric Impairment Rating Scale (PIRS), the Comcare Permanent Impairment Guides, and the Guide to the Assessment of Rates of Veteran Pensions (GARP).

Dr Mark Whittington

Dr Whittington has worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist for more than 30 years. During this period, he has had over 150,000 consultations and has acquired a wealth of experience dealing with mental illness at the clinical coalface. Driven by a desire to help more than one patient at a time he has condensed and crystallised his interventions in a complete system of mental health education called Metaphorical Therapy.

Metaphorical Therapy employs the power of specifically chosen metaphors to explain abstract psychological concepts in concrete digestible small pieces. Each metaphor is linked to create a “frame of understanding” upon which a substantial, simple, yet deceptive comprehensive education occurs that is aimed at prevention of mental illness.

Metaphorical Therapy has the capacity to reach the world in desperate need of practical mental health education and help.