November 18, 2014
Public lecture rethinks approaches to youth mental health
Leading international mental health researcher and advocate Professor Patrick McGorry will tackle the need to reform youth mental health care at a free public lecture in Wollongong this Friday (21 November).
Professor McGorry, the 2010 Australian of the Year, will deliver the 2014 Alan Owen Lecture, hosted by UOW’s Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI).
The annual lecture is named in honour of the late Professor Alan Owen (1952 – 2012), who campaigned for better health care and outcomes for patients.
Professor McGorry is currently Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and Director of Orygen Youth Health and Orygen Youth Health Research Centre in Victoria, Australia.
His talk – ‘Youth mental health: a best buy for mental health reform’ – will argue for a different approach to helping young people deal with mental health issues at the early stages of the disorders.
Professor McGorry says mental and substance use disorders are among the leading health and social issues facing society.
Because these disorders – including psychotic, mood, personality, eating and substance use – arise at a critical time in a young person’s life cycle they are the key health issue for young people in the teenage years and early twenties, and if they persist, they constrain, distress and disable young people for decades.
“While we have been preoccupied with health spending at the other end of the lifespan, young people, who are on the threshold of the peak productive years of life, have the greatest capacity to benefit from stepwise evidence-based treatments and better health care delivery,” Professor McGorry said.
Visit ahsri.uow.edu.au to register to attend the lecture.
Note to media
Media are invited to attend The Alan Owen Lecture, to be will be held at the Leon-Kane Maguire Theatre, AIIM building, Innovation Campus, North Wollongong from 4.30pm on Friday 21 November.
Media contact
Grant Reynolds, UOW Media & PR Officer, +61 417 010 350 or grantr@uow.edu.au.