Adjunct Associate Professor
Darrel Doessel PhD                             

Email: darrel_doessel@qcmhr.uq.edu.au

Darrel Doessel holds an adjunct appointment as Associate Professor in the School of Population Health . Prior to taking up his current position at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, he was Associate Professor in the School of Economics at The University of Queensland. His academic interests lie in microeconomics, welfare economics, public finance and health economics. He is the author of three, books and co-author of three other books, and editor/co-editor of seven books, predominately in health economics.

He has had editorial experience with two academic journals and held various elected positions with professional associations such as the Economic Society of Australia and the Australian Health Economics Society. In addition to editing two volumes on general practice in Australia , he was a member of various Australian Department of Health and Ageing committees associated with the reform process following the introduction of the vocational register for general practitioners.

In 1999 he became interested in issues associated with mental illness. This interest culminated with the publication of The Economics of Mental Health Care: Industry, Government and Community Issues , co-authored with Ruth Williams. Since then his work has focussed on the plethora of conceptual and empirical problems that surround mental health. The central theme of the work is policy evaluation. This orientation to policy has not arisen by chance, given the Australian Government's adoption of the National Mental Health Strategy in 1991, and the more recent COAG reforms. In addition, some work has also been undertaken on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy and the National Drug Strategy.

Ten representative publications

•  Williams, R.F.G. and Doessel, D.P. “Do the Spatially Uniform Subsidies of Medicare Operate in a Single, Uniform Market? The Case of Private Psychiatry”, Economic Papers, (in press).

•  Doessel, D.P. Scheurer, R.W. Chant, D. and Whiteford, H. “Financial Incentives and Psychiatric Services in Australia : An Empirical Analysis of Three Policy Changes”, Health Economics, Policy and Law, (in press).

•  Williams R.F.G. and Doessel, D.P. “Improving Mental Health Inequality in Australia ? Some Initial Evidence from Australia ”, Applied Economics Letters, (in press).

•  Doessel. D.P. Scheurer, R.W. Chant, D.C. Whiteford, H. “The National Mental Health Strategy and Geographical Access to Mental Health Services: Some Empirical Results”, Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, (in press).

•  Williams, R.F.G. Doessel, D.P. Scheurer, R.W. and Whiteford, H. “Some Economic Dimensions of the Mental Health Jigsaw in Australia ”, International Journal of Social Economics, (in press).

•  Doessel, D.P. Scheurer, R.W. Chant, D.C. and Whiteford, H.A.(2006) “Changes in Private Sector Electroconvulsive Treatment in Australia”, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 362-7.

•  Doessel, D.P. Scheurer, R.W. Chant, D.C. and Whiteford, H. (2005) “ Australia 's National Health Strategy and Deinstitutionalisation: Some Empirical Results”, Australian and Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 39, no. 11/12, pp. 989-44.

•  Connolly, L.B. and Doessel, D.P. (2004), “Medical Expenditure and Health Status in Australia : A Story of Increasing or Decreasing Returns”, Australian Economic Review, vol. 37 no. 1, pp. 12-30.

•  Connolly, L.B. and Doessel, D.P. (2002), Medicare and General Practice: An Economic Analysis , School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sydney, pp. xiv + 185.

•  Williams, R.F.G. and Doessel, D.P. (2001), The Economics of Mental Health Care: Industry, Government and Community Issues , Ashgate, Aldershot , pp. xii + 281.