Dr. Raykar is one of more than 300 alumni around the world who have used the ZERO TO THREE Fellowship to advance their career and to bring meaningful change in the lives of young children.
Dr. Vibhay Raykar is a Clinical Director of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Program at Goulburn Valley Health, a regional hospital in Shepparton, Australia. The program works with infants, children, adolescents and parents with mental illness in a culturally-diverse, rural setting challenged by considerable social disadvantage and a large immigrant population.
As a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr. Raykar and his team have grappled with complex service delivery challenges including collaborating with other community agencies and recruiting and retaining key staff members.
“I felt the need to further develop my leadership skills to better address the challenging systems-change work I had started. Developing services and working collaboratively with other organizations was a glaring gap in my medical training.”
Dr. Raykar turned to his professional network to identify how to fill his skills gap. His mentor, Dr. Julie Stone, recommended the ZERO TO THREE Fellowship.
Dr. Raykar pictured with his Fellowship Class.
“My mentor, Dr. Julie Stone, was the first Australian ZERO TO THREE Fellow and I was amazed at the work she had accomplished in a short time; and her ability to develop relationships and influence change.”
More than 300 alumni around the world have used the ZERO TO THREE Fellowship to advance their career and to bring meaningful change to policies, systems, and programs impacting the lives of young children. The active alumni network allows Fellows to maintain lifetime connections with each other, along with ZERO TO THREE’s Board members, staff, and growing network of early childhood professionals. In 2016, Dr. Raykar became another successful alumnus of the ZERO TO THREE Fellowship.
“The Fellowship experience was transformative and very timely. The leap from a mental health expert to a clinical leader working to change the status quo occurred in a short timeframe. The Fellowship allowed me to learn and actively use the adaptive leadership framework, and to understand the role of nurturing relationships to further ‘the work.’ Because of the Fellowship, I was better able to lead our service through a very challenging redevelopment process. The experience helped me build a robust team, develop innovative ways of working, and establish good relationships with partner agencies. I am currently involved in several projects that involve work with complex systems and I feel quietly confident in being able to manage future challenges.”
Today, Dr. Raykar is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrist and is currently involved in a multi-center research project to study the feasibility of Child Parent Psychotherapy in Australia.
