Professor Patrick McGorry AO, Executive Director of Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental, and Professor of Youth Mental Health at The University of Melbourne, has today been awarded the Schizophrenia International Research Society’s (SIRS) 2018 lifetime achievement award in acknowledgement of his clinical and research contributions to psychosis.
Professor McGorry was presented the award at the SIRS conference in Florence, Italy and said the award reflected decades of teamwork from the EPPIC and PACE clinicians and researchers and hence was a tribute to our wider team at Orygen.
“It is a huge honour to be presented with such an award,” Professor McGorry said “But so much of the credit goes to the dedicated and creative colleagues and friends especially at Orygen, but also in so many other parts of the world, who have worked with me so generously and collaboratively to create better outcomes for young people.”
“While this is branded as a lifetime award, paradoxically I feel there is so much more to do, and feel even more energised to build on our progress so far to finally get fair deal for people with schizophrenia and other potentially serious mental illnesses in our health system and in our society.”
Professor McGorry is a world leader in early psychosis and youth mental health research and care. He pioneered the early intervention model of care for young people with early psychosis from subthreshold stages through the critical period of the early years after onset. This model of care, which focuses on intervening early and providing holistic care to young people at the early stage of illness has been recognised as one of the most significant recent reforms in mental health care. The model has been adopted by mental health services across Australia and around the world.