Pat McGorry

Why you should lis­ten to him

Pro­fes­sor Pat McGorry is Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Ory­gen Youth Health, a world-renowned men­tal health organ­i­sa­tion for young peo­ple that has put Aus­tralia at the fore­front of inno­va­tion in the pre­ven­tion and treat­ment of men­tal ill­ness. Ory­gen tar­gets the needs of young peo­ple with emerg­ing seri­ous men­tal ill­ness, includ­ing first-episode psy­chosis and has become the model upon which many other youth men­tal health ser­vices in the world are based.

Pro­fes­sor McGorry is also a direc­tor of the National Youth Men­tal Health Foun­da­tion (head­space). He believes that early inter­ven­tion offers the great­est hope for recov­ery and there­fore takes every oppor­tu­nity to edu­cate the com­mu­nity to recog­nise the early signs of men­tal ill­ness, with­out stig­ma­tis­ing or discriminating.

Pro­fes­sor McGorry was named as Aus­tralian of the Year in Jan­u­ary 2010 in recog­ni­tion of “his extra­or­di­nary 27-year con­tri­bu­tion to the improve­ment of the youth men­tal health sec­tor [that] has trans­formed the lives of tens of thou­sands of young peo­ple the world over.”

We are at a tip­ping point for men­tal health reform in Aus­tralia. Not only can we no longer afford to do noth­ing, but we now have the oppor­tu­nity, capac­ity and momen­tum to deliver gen­uinely trans­for­ma­tional change.

Links

• Pat McGorry