John Cade - John Cade, Royal Park and RANZCP

John Cade, Royal Park and RANZCP

In 1952 Cade was appointed Superintendent and Dean of the clinical school at Royal Park Hospital. Two years later, at the request of the Mental Hygiene Authority which was planning to remodel Royal Park, he visited Britain for six months to inspect psychiatric institutions. On his return, he introduced modern facilities and replaced the rather authoritarian approach to patient care with a lot more personal and informal style that included group therapy. Concerned at the number of alcohol-related cases, he supported voluntary admission to aid early detection and later proposed the use of large doses of thiamine in the treatment of alcoholism. Cade served as the Superintendent at Royal Park until his retirement in 1977.

He served as the federal president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1969–70, and also as the president for its Victoria branch from 1963 until his death in 1980. In the end, Dr. Cade's discovery did receive widespread acknowledgements and praise. For his contribution to psychiatry, he was awarded a Kittay International Award in 1974 (with Mogens Schou from Denmark), and he was invited to be a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. In 1976, Cade was one of the first to be made an Officer of the Order of Australia. Dr. Cade remained humble about his chance discovery, describing himself as merely a gold prospector who happened to find a nugget. Finally, in July 2004, the Medical Journal of Australia reported that Cade's 1949 article, "Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement", was the number one most cited MJA article.