Consultant Psychiatrist, Convenor, VTPU Clinical Seminars

Dr. Can Tuncer is a consultant psychiatrist in private practice, and has been working with the Victorian Transcultural Psychiatry Unit (VTPU) since 1990.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). Following two years of advanced training, he was awarded a Certificate of Advanced Training in The Psychotherapies of the RANZCP. He is the secretary of the Victorian branch of the RANZCP Section of Psychotherapy. Besides being a member of the Victorian Branch Committee, he was a Councillor (a senior position in the RANZCP) of the General Council. He was also involved in other RANZCP activities such as being an examiner in clinical and written examinations for trainees in Psychiatry, was a member of the Scientific Committee of the RANZCP 2008 Melbourne Conference. He is a Scientific Committee Member of RANZCP 2012 Hobart Conference.

Since August 2011 he is the Chair of RANZCP Section of Social and Cultural Psychiatry.

Since 1995 he has been convening VTPU clinical seminars (Cultural Perspectives in Clinical Practice), which include monthly clinical case discussion meetings for psychiatry registrars at St Vincent’s Hospital. He has been involved in research and training activities at the VTPU, including the Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Sciences (Transcultural Mental Health), at the University of Melbourne. He teaches and examines medical students of the University of Melbourne and teaches the MPM Transcultural Psychiatry, Selective program at the University of Melbourne and Monash University at postgraduate level. He teaches Psychiatry to International Medical Graduates at the Victorian Medical Postgraduate Foundation.

As part of VTPU’s training programs, he teaches specifically in clinical transcultural psychiatry topics. He is a founding member of the Turkish Mental Health Network, which has a highly active role in providing education on mental health and mental illness to the Turkish community. He worked as an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Istanbul. In his psychiatric clinical practice, he has interest in providing primary and secondary consultations to patients of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds. He has publications both in English and Turkish on culture and mental illness and other topics in psychiatry.