Description
About The Bendigo Rainbow Hub
The Bendigo Rainbow Hub is a neuro-affirming, gender-affirming, and LGBTIQA+ affirming physical and mental health service based in central Victoria. We provide care to LGBTIQA+ and neurodivergent people across the lifespan, from children through to older adults, and to their families and support networks. Our model is collaborative, low-friction, and built around the lived realities of the communities we serve.
Purpose of the role
The Consultant Psychiatrist provides high-quality, affirming psychiatric assessment, diagnosis, formulation, and ongoing management to patients of The Bendigo Rainbow Hub. The role supports the multidisciplinary team through case discussion, secondary consultation, and shared care arrangements with general practitioners, psychologists, and allied health colleagues, both within the Hub and in the wider community.
Key responsibilities
- Conduct comprehensive psychiatric assessments, including diagnostic formulation, risk assessment, and treatment planning, mainly for LGBTIQA+ and neurodivergent patients of all ages.
- Provide ongoing psychiatric management, including pharmacological treatment, review, and titration, in line with current evidence and patient-centred goals.
- Undertake neurodevelopmental assessment (ADHD, autism, co-occurring presentations) where this falls within the contractor's scope of practice.
- Provide psychiatric input into gender-affirming care pathways where this falls within scope.
- Maintain timely, accurate, and respectful clinical documentation.
- Liaise with referring general practitioners, psychologists, paediatricians, and other treating clinicians.
- Participate in multidisciplinary case discussion as agreed.
- Provide secondary consultation to Hub clinicians where appropriate.
- Professional standards
- Maintain current AHPRA registration as a specialist psychiatrist, RANZCP fellowship (or equivalent recognised pathway), and professional indemnity insurance.
- Meet all RANZCP continuing professional development requirements.
- Practise in accordance with the RANZCP Code of Ethics, AHPRA standards, and Hub policies.
- Contribute to a culture of affirming, trauma-informed, and respectful care.
- Engage with quality improvement activity and patient feedback processes as relevant to the contractor arrangement.
Selection criteria
Essential
Fellowship of the RANZCP, or an equivalent recognised specialist pathway.
Current AHPRA registration as a specialist psychiatrist, with no restrictions relevant to the role.
Current professional indemnity insurance covering private practice and telehealth.
Demonstrated competence in psychiatric assessment, formulation, and pharmacological management.
Demonstrated capacity to work in a neuro-affirming, gender-affirming, and LGBTIQA+ affirming manner.
Strong written and verbal communication, including clinical correspondence with referrers.
Desirable
Experience in neurodevelopmental assessment, including ADHD and autism, across one or more age groups.
Experience contributing to gender-affirming care.
Experience with authorised prescriber pathways.
Experience with medicine-assisted therapies.
Experience with rTMS.
Experience working with complex trauma and co-occurring presentations
Experience working with rural and regional populations.
Experience in telehealth-delivered psychiatric care.
Work arrangements
This is an independent contractor engagement. The Hub offers genuine flexibility:
Hours and days are set by the contractor.
Practice may be delivered via telehealth, in-person at the Hub's Bendigo rooms, or a combination of the two.
Caseload, scope, and patient mix are negotiated and may be reviewed periodically.
The contractor remains responsible for their own taxation, superannuation, leave, and insurance arrangements.
Remuneration
A competitive take-home portion, structured to be meaningfully above the industry norm for contractor psychiatrists. Specific terms are negotiated with successful applicants.
What the Hub provides
To reduce administrative burden and support high-quality clinical work, the Hub provides contractors with:
Claude Enterprise for clinical thinking, drafting, and admin support
Heidi Health for ambient scribing and note generation
Microsoft 365 with a hub email address
Zoom Meetings for telehealth sessions
Zoom Phone for secure calling
A competitive take-home portion – we have structured the split so contractors keep meaningfully more than the industry norm
Full time administrative support
An affirming, low-friction workplace where you do not have to explain or defend the basics of who your patients are
Monthly multidisciplinary peer review group
Conduct and conditions
The contractor is expected to uphold the Hub's commitment to affirming, respectful, and culturally safe care for all patients, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disability, and LGBTIQA+ and neurodivergent people of all ages.
A current National Police Check, Working with Children Check, and evidence of immunisation in line with Victorian Department of Health requirements are required prior to commencement.
How to apply
Applications should include a curriculum vitae and a cover letter addressing the essential and desirable selection criteria. Applications and enquiries may be directed to israel@rainbowhub.com.au.
Requirements
The Bendigo Rainbow Hub is looking for a psychiatrist to join us as a long-term contractor. We are a neuro-affirming, gender-affirming, and LGBTIQA+ affirming practice working with people of all ages, and we are growing.
About the role
This is a contractor position, and you set the shape of it. Telehealth, in-person at our Bendigo rooms, or a mix of the two – whatever fits your life and your practice. You choose your hours, your caseload, and the days you work.
Our patients are mainly LGBTIQA+ and/or neurodivergent people across the lifespan, from children through to older adults. You do not need to be everything to everyone; we are happy to discuss scope and special interests, and we will refer in line with what you most want to do.
What we provide
We have done the work to make the practical side genuinely easy:
Claude Enterprise for clinical thinking, drafting, and admin support
Heidi Health for ambient scribing and note generation
Microsoft 365 with a hub email address
Zoom Meetings for telehealth sessions
Zoom Phone for secure calling
A competitive take-home portion – we have structured the split so contractors keep meaningfully more than the industry norm
Full time administrative support
An affirming, low-friction workplace where you do not have to explain or defend the basics of who your patients are
Monthly multidisciplinary peer review group
Who we are hoping to hear from
You are a Fellow of the RANZCP (or close to it), with current AHPRA registration and indemnity. You are warm with patients, comfortable with complexity, and you do not need a primer on neurodivergence, gender diversity, or the realities our patients carry into the room. Experience with ADHD, autism, gender-affirming care, addictions, pain, and/or complex trauma is welcomed but not required across all areas – tell us where you sit.
If you are early-career, mid-career, or winding back from a larger public or private load and want something more sustainable, all of these are workable.
How to apply
Send a cover letter about yourself, your interests, and what kind of contractor arrangement would suit you, along with a CV, to israel@rainbowhub.com.au.
