Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health welcomes the passing of the legislation of the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and believes that the overall design and operation of the MRFF as described by the Bill appears consistent with the goal of harnessing the significant national asset of Australia’s high quality health research sector to address a number of key challenges faced by our health system.
Mental illness has the greatest negative impact on GDP of all non-communicable diseases, largely because it strikes in the prime productive years of life and our current health care system is not equipped to respond early or effectively enough. Orygen believes that there is a clear imperative to ensure that our health research investment produces growing returns in terms of better and more effective mental health care.
Professor Patrick McGorry AO, Executive Director of Orygen believes the MRFF is a crucial reform for Australian medical research: ‘The establishment of the Medical Research Future Fund will allow Australian researchers greater opportunities to develop innovative health care solutions that will benefit the world. I hope the MRFF will further strengthen the capacity of Australia’s world-leading mental health researchers to improve outcomes for people with mental ill-health.’
Australian research and innovation has already underpinned major health system reforms such as headspace and early psychosis services that are now being replicated throughout the world. We believe that the Bill describe a MRFF that has the potential to support the next frontier of innovation in mental health research.