»Australian of the Year 2010, Patrick McGorry AO to speak at opening ceremony
Arts and Health Australia is honoured that Professor McGorry will be the special guest at the official opening of the 2010 conference The Art of Good Health and Wellbeing.
Australian of the Year 2010, Patrick McGorry OA is Professor of Youth Mental Health University of Melbourne, Executive Director Orygen Youth Health Research Centre and founding board member of headspace, National Youth Mental Health Foundation. He is a world-leading researcher in the area of early psychosis and youth mental health, and has played an integral role in the development of effective treatments for young people with emerging mental disorders, notably psychotic and severe mood disorders.
Orygen Youth Health (OYH) is Australia's largest youth mental health organisation, based in Parkville, Victoria. It comprises a world-renown research centre and a clinical service targeting the needs of young people with emerging serious mental illness. Orygen Youth Health's early psychosis service, (EPPIC), was founded by Professor McGorry in 1992, and has been hugely influential internationally.
Prof. McGorry has published over 300 papers and book chapters, edited five books, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Early Intervention in Psychiatry. Prof McGorry has also played a major role in mental health reform in Australia as a key adviser to the Because mental health matters: Victorian Mental Health Reform Strategy 2009-19. More recently he has been invited to attend the US/Canada Policy think tank on youth mental health.
With an emphasis on early intervention and a commitment to educating the community to the early signs of mental illness, Prof McGorry's 27-year contribution has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of young people with emerging serious mental illness the world over. Patrick McGorry was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medicine and to mental health in the Queen's Birthday Honours June 2010.