Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, has been awarded the 2016 TheMHS Medal for Mental Health. The prestigious award honours a unique and inspiring contribution to mental health by an individual or organisation and was awarded to Orygen in recognition of the organisation’s world-leading influence in youth mental health and the vital role of early intervention as a treatment model.
The medal recognises Orygen as an international leader in the development and delivery of treatments for young people with mental illnesses, an organisation that works to deliver cutting-edge research, policy development, innovative clinical services, and evidence-based training and education to ensure that there is continuous improvement in the treatments and care provided to young people experiencing mental ill-health.
The medal also honours the pioneering and innovative work Orygen has lead in the area of early intervention which began back in 1984 with the establishment of the first Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC). A model of care with a special focus on assisting young people hospitalised while experiencing a first episode of psychosis with the aim of intervening early to divert the course of the illness and to achieve better outcomes. Over three decades the model has been refined and developed and is now an early intervention approach that has been scaled up in countries across the world with significant investments in Europe, North America and Asia.
Executive Director of Orygen, Professor Patrick McGorry AO says, “This award is a tremendous honour and recognition of the hard work of many people over several decades. I’m really proud of the team at Orygen who have transformed the field of mental health care for young people globally, pioneering an early intervention approach that focuses on prevention and recovery.”
The ceremony also honoured Dr Simon Rice, Research Fellow at Orygen who received the ‘Early Career Research in Mental Health’ award for Innovation. The award recognises the highly innovative ‘Rebound’ pilot study he leads, the world’s first social network based intervention for preventing relapse in depression. The intervention brings together innovative online social networking, individually tailored e-mental health interventions plus peer-to-peer and professional clinical moderation in a single digital platform.
“Our team are working to provide new ways of supporting young people in their recoveries. By harnessing social media in a positive way, we are creating supportive online communities that are readily available to help young people put their strengths into action.” Dr Rice says.
TheMHS Learning Network Inc. is an international learning network for improving mental health services in Australia and New Zealand and brings together people to stimulate debates that challenge the boundaries of present knowledge and ideas about mental health care and mental health systems.