Meet icare Brain Injury Psychiatry Fellow Dr Daniel Smoothy

In October 2020 he commenced as a Fellow in the icare brain injury psychiatry program, funded by the icare Foundation. He is also completing a Master of Medicine (Psychiatry) at the University of Sydney and is in his fifth year accredited psychiatry training with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

Having completed a Science degree majoring in Anatomy at the University of Queensland, Dr Smoothy completed a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery degree at the University of Wollongong. It was during this time he developed a keen interest in psychiatry.

He felt that mental health and psychiatry incorporated the best, but also the most challenging areas of medicine. He saw an opportunity to provide care to people who were often the most vulnerable and the most in need of care, both mental and physical healthcare.

Dr Smoothy's special interest in Consultation-Liaison psychiatry came about during his Consultation-Liaison psychiatry term as an accredited psychiatry trainee. It was here that he had the opportunity to attend and run a neuropsychiatry clinic with his supervisor and neuropsychiatrist. Having exposure to patients with co-morbid mental health issues associated with brain injury lead him to pursue the icare Brain Injury Psychiatry Fellowship.

Greater exposure and understanding

"I see a great opportunity for this fellowship to provide me with the knowledge and training to become an advocate for the mental health issues in patients with brain injury and provide education to other mental health clinicians, psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees. I also hope to expand this understanding and exposure of the mental health concerns of people with brain injury to the wider mental health profession," Dr Smoothy.

In a typical week, Dr Smoothy will spend two days at the Liverpool Hospital Brain Injury Unit and Liverpool Hospital Consultation Liaison Psychiatry for brain injury patients. One day per week he is at the Illawarra Brain Injury Service outpatient clinic based at Port Kembla, and the other two days he is based at Wollongong Hospital with the Consultation Liaison Psychiatry team and Neurosurgical team.

Through completion of the Fellowship, Dr Smoothy hopes to increase exposure to mental health presentations in patients with brain injury, and a better understanding of the complexities of treating these types of patients.

"The icare Brain Injury Psychiatry Fellowship allows me to add a sub-specialised area of psychiatry to my scope of clinical practice via direct access to the specialised brain injury inpatient unit based at Liverpool Hospital and their very experienced clinicians. Training rotations such as this are often never available to psychiatric trainees and I feel privileged that I have the opportunity to gain such valuable training experience," Dr Smoothy.