Professor Malcolm Battersby

Dr Malcolm Battersby is Professor and Head of Psychiatry at Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health and Senior Consultant Psychiatrist Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN) Mental Health Services.

Professor Battersby trained with Professor Isaac Marks at the Institute of Psychiatry (1987-1990), London in behavioural treatments of anxiety disorders. From this research and clinical foundation, he established the Centre for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide in 1993, and in 1996 the Intensive Gambling Therapy Service. He then led the establishment of the Master of Mental Health Sciences (later Master of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), Flinders University, in 2000. In 2007 his team was awarded the Statewide Gambling Therapy Services contract and in 2010 he established the Flinders Centre for Gambling Research. Professor Battersby established the Flinders Human Behaviour and Health Research Unit (FHBHRU) in 2003. He was Clinical Director of the SALHN Mental Health Services 2015-2019 and led the reform of the mental health service including a new Model of Care for the Community Mental Health.

His team at FHBHRU provided the training and supervision of low intensity coaches delivering cognitive behavioural therapy for the Beyondblue NewAccess program that saw over 4000 people with anxiety and depression achieving recovery rates of 68%. NewAccess has since been implemented in many of Australia’s Primary Health Networks.

He was awarded a Harkness Research Fellowship in the study of Chronic Condition Self-management in the United States 2003-2004 and led the development of the Flinders Program of chronic condition management, adapted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people as the Flinders Closing the Gap program. He has been awarded over $40 million in NHMRC, ARC and Commonwealth grants including as chief investigator of the NHMRC trial of the use of the Flinders Program to improve cardiovascular risk in people with psychosis.