Alberto is a specialist Child and Family Psychiatrist and General Paediatrician, from Melbourne, Australia. He is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and the Royal Australian College of Physicians. He is passionate about Child and Family Mental Health with a particular focus on understanding and assisting the emotional development of children and adolescents. His clinical focus is assessing and treating mental health problems by integrating our understandings about brain development, the impact of relationships on emotional maturity and evidence based biological and psychological treatments.
Alberto’s current roles include:
- Director of Relational Minds, Child and Family Mental Health Clinic
- Consultant Psychiatrist, Child and Youth Mental Health Service at Mildura Base Hospital
- Consultant Psychiatrist, Emerge Program, Headspace Onkaparinga, Adelaide
- Consultant Psychiatrist to Child Protection Service, Department of Health and Human Services, Mallee Region
- Consultant Psychiatrist to Burrun Dalai Aboriginal Corporation, child Protection Services, Kempsey, Tamworth, Taree, NSW.
- Chair and Clinical Lead – Clinical Advisory Group – Integrated Area-Based Health Systems Project for Out Of Home Care children, Mallee Region
- Scientific Advisory Committee, Mental Health Foundation of Australia
Alberto provides integrated and holistic mental health care. He has specialist training in the assessment of mental health disorder including Mood disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Psychosis, Substance Abuse Disorders, PTSD, Eating Disorders, ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder. He is skilled in the biological and psychological treatment of mental health disorders which may include prescribing medications or engaging in individual and/or family therapy.
Graduating from Monash University in 2002, Alberto underwent paediatric training at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne (RCH) to become a General Paediatrician. His specialty training experiences included Paediatric Neurology, Paediatric Gastroenterology, Emergency Medicine and Neonatal Intensive Care. He entered Psychiatry training at Austin Health and Progressing to Advanced Training in Child Psychiatry at The Royal Children’s Hospital. His specialty training experiences in psychiatry included roles in Developmental Neuropsychiatry Program and the Banksia Inpatient Adolescent Unit at RCH.
Since 2017, Alberto has been focused on Attachment Focused Family Therapy and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. A therapy approach developed by Dr Daniel Hughes for the care of children in foster care (Out Of Home Care). He implements Dyadic Developmental Practice with families who are noticing emotional difficulties in their young people,. He works with foster carers and the child protection system to achieve holistic care for children in out of home care. He supervises clinical teams (Child Youth Mental Health Services and Headspace) to provide high quality mental health care. He consults to schools and other organisations to implement the understanding of emotional development into their core business. He provides clinical supervision to professionals (eg. Paediatricians) to build their knowledge and expertise in the treatment of child and adolescent mental health disorders.
