Hi
I am thinking of moving to Oz.
However, a few years ago I suffered from depression - got treatment etc; am fine now.
I was wondering, how will this affect my application if i want to move to Oz. I understand one must undertake a medical exam etc.
Will my doctor have to release my medical history to the relevant agency etc.
Any opinions?

Hi,

I would not worry too much about it. Be upfront and give details about treatment recieved and any prescribed drugs taken. We went through this with one of our family members. The panel doctor said it would not be a problem and he was right...here we are, in Aus.
Do a search on here as this subject comes up every now and again.

All the best with your application.......K

Hi,
I dont know from the other end but my husband was able to sponser me to australia with depression and anxiety and no questions were ever asked about it.

Just tell them at the medical and it should be fine. I had postnatal depression and another bout later on and it is noted on the medical but no further questions have been asked.
Good luck.
Nicky

Hi

I worried about this too,having suffered from post natal depression and anxiety a few years ago. I was completely honest on the medical form and had to provide letters form my GP to prove I'm now fit as a fiddle.It got me down a bit to be raking it all up again and of course I worried the whole time we were waiting but in the end it was fine,no probs at all.

Don't worry

Claire

We had our Meds on Thurs and I have suffered with slight depression (post natal) and anxiety, I put it on the form but the panel Dr never even mentioned it. He said all was ok with meds so I think you will be fine
Good luck
Jane xx

I suffered Post Natal Depression too and I think the reason we all get so worried about it is because of the stigma society attaches to it. What everyone needs to remember is that true Post Natal Depression is not a mental illness - it's a hormone imbalance which can usually be very sorted with medication and or counselling!!!

Sorry, off my soap box now - it's just a subject that's very close to my heart.

Hi

I wouldnt worry. I know someone that suffered very bad depression 5 years ago, she had to have a 6 week stay in hospital and obviously a bucket load of medication. Apart from the odd black day they have never had to seek medical help since.
This was all made very clear in the application and produced no problems.


Good Luck
Sharon

That's really reassuring - so glad your friend is OK now.

From our own experience, if the depression can be classified as a "reactionary depression" then you should not have a problem. We had to declare this in our medicals and we got our visa's without a problem.

If it is more serious than that then maybe a specialists report should do the trick?

Do you have to declare it? They don't cross reference with your medical records, do they?

They dont check or ask for previous medical records. My partner has suffered with depression and he did inform the panel Dr...it wasn't a problem, they are more interested in infectious diseases!

can i just ask you all, when you go to doc for meds, do they give you forms to fill out there and then or do you have to take them along with you and download them from somewhere?

what about previous surgery etc, do we have to take a drs letter along from our gp?

thanks

deb

Thanks for that. We have our medicals on Thursday - I suffer from anxiety and have been torturing myself with all the things they could find out is wrong with me

When my employer applied to immigration, they sent us the forms. However you can download them. You need to have them beforehand as there are sections you need to fill in. You also need to have your chest X-rays done before the medicals and take the results that are sealed to your panel DR. No need to take Dr's letters etc, the panel Dr will take your history. If you download the forms it will make sense! Hope this helps