The latest event in our VOICES: The Conversation Series featured special guest Professor Patrick McGorry AO.
Most mental health disorders begin between the early teens and the mid-20s. One in five young people will have experienced a depressive episode by the time they turn 18. To quote Professor McGorry: ‘Young people are the miner’s canaries of society. Their mental health had been deteriorating steadily for a decade before the pandemic, and now 39 per cent of 15-24-year-olds need some form of care for mental ill-health. This event explored questions including:
What are the factors which are leading to higher ratse of mentail ill-health and suicide?
Have society and government paid enough attention to these factors as the key to prevention?
Have enough resources been devoted to early care and sustained recovery?
Has the time come for radical health care, and especially mental health, reform?
Keynote Speaker: Professor McGorry AO
Professor McGorry AO is a leading international researcher, clinician and advocate for youth mental health reform.
He is a Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and founding editor of the journal Early Intervention in Psychiatry. He is Executive Director of Orygen Youth Health (OYH), 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.
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