I have a friend who also moved from the US and works in a community mental health setting near me - if you come over here to start in outpatient you would most likely be working in the community for a DHB (district health board), as most people I know used employer sponsorship to get a visa. There are private practice psychiatrists around who I've bumped into here and there, primarily taking cash only. In the DHB's you get assigned to a team with case managers/OT's/psychologists and such, reminiscent of a lot of public psychiatry in the US. The patients who end up seen by DHB's tend to be quite ill and under-resourced - severe bipolar, schizophrenia, character pathology, PTSD. Some teams are better-staffed than others; my friend works in a reasonably well-staffed place (meaning there are enough case managers for the volume of intakes they have). I believe my colleague sees around 6-8 patients per day, and much like on the inpatient unit, these tend to be longer and more comprehensive engagements with patients. He came from a high-volume intense setting in the states and, like me, is planning to stay a long while.
There are registrars (residents) in the system where I work, who work alongside teams in the community and on inpatient teams. I usually have a med student on my inpatient team. If you're near a med school there are teaching opportunities and research, and some people get into that. I have 1/2 day per week to attend peer supervision group, their version of grand rounds, or work on papers and other "professional development." PTO here under a permanent contract is robust and CME funds are substantial as most people would be going overseas for conferences under normal circumstances.
