Health professionals

Referral form

Please complete our new online referral form‍

Please note - Referrals will only be considered as suitable for the service if a GP or medical specialist submits a completed referral form.

Discuss a referral

To discuss a referral, please contact us via telephone on 9342 8750

To speak with the Neuropsychiatry Intake Registrar, please go through the RMH switchboard or via reception at Neuropsychiatry 03 9342 8750.

If you have a query about a patient in our inpatient clinic, please call the nurses station on 03 9342 4034.

Referral process

Once a referral is received by us, a decision is made as to whether an inpatient or outpatient assessment for your patient is required. The clinical team meets weekly to discuss incoming referrals.

An inpatient assessment is often preferable if multiple different assessments and tests need to be done or for more complex referral cases. Such assessments may sometimes take months to organise if done as an outpatient and can be very difficult if patients are from regional and rural regions of Victoria, or interstate.

‍

We assess patients who have a mixture of psychiatric and/or neurological conditions which require specialized diagnostic, investigational and management input.

We have expertise in the assessment of complex clinical psychiatric presentations.

Your patient may be referred to our service for either:

• Differentiating severe mental illness from ‘organic disorders’
• Younger onset dementia / rare/ atypical dementias
• Movement disorders either primary (Huntington’s Disease or predictive Huntington’s Disease) or secondary (medication related)
• Neurogenetics
• Metabolic Neuropsychiatry
• Inborn metabolic disorders with psychiatric sequelae (Niemann Pick Type C, PKU)
• Cognitive impairment associated with psychiatric illness
• Neurological disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy)
• Complex Psychiatric disorder
• Conversion disorders
• Deep Brain Stimulation for OCD/Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Complex or treatment-resistant major psychiatric illness
• ECT in ASD and Catatonia
• Congenital neuropsychiatric disorders
• Intellectual disability with neuropsychiatric sequelae
• Other neuropsychiatric presentation (schizophrenia with movement disorder, vasculitis, organic psychiatric disorder, neurometabolic disorder)
• Access to investigations for those with severe mental illness

Please note: Referrals will not be accepted if another service is felt to be more appropriate (such as a private psychiatrist, brain injury service etc.) or if the request is only for neuropsychology assessment and management. We are not a Neuropsychology service. Here is a comprehensive list of neuropsychology services

What can our specialist team offer your patient as well as yourself as a healthcare provider?

Our specialists can offer your patient as well as yourself as the patient’s health care provider:

• neuropsychiatric assessment
• neuropsychological assessment
• primary or secondary consultations
• second opinions
• attendance at multidisciplinary meetings
• educational seminars
• involvement in carer and patient support
• video interpreting services available

Please note: We do not do crisis assessments. Please contact either the ambulance, your nearest hospital or contact the NorthWesternMentalHealth Triage Service after-hours on 1300 874 243 (1300 TRIAGE)

To view our clinical resources and tools click here