Future mental health challenges for Australians
28 October 2010
Edith Cowan University, Bunbury
Edith Cowan University, Bunbury
Professor Patrick McGorry
Australian of the Year 2010 |
A 21st century approach to mental health care
Professor Patrick McGorry is a leading international researcher, clinician and advocate for the youth mental health reform agenda. 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. OYH 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 founding board member of headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation. 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. His extraordinary 27-year contribution to the improvement of the youth mental health sector has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of young people the world over. |
Professor Ralph Martins
WA Australian of the Year 2010 |
A looming Alzheimer epidemic to afflict Australians: Challenges and potential solutions
Professor Ralph Martins is recognised as a world leader of research into Alzheimer’s disease. Since the disease’s discovery in 1906, little research work was done until Professor Martins teamed up with Professor Colin Masters and a team of German scientists. They made the first significant discovery showing that the beta amyloid protein that coats the brain is the foundation of Alzheimer’s. Later Professor Martins made the critical discovery that the Alzheimer’s brain is under oxidative stress. He has now been instrumental in bringing to Perth new technology that makes it possible to determine if a patient has deposits of the toxic beta amyloid, and therefore allow early treatment before the brain has been irreparably damaged. Perth is one of only two cities in Australia with this capability. As head of the Sir James McCusker Unit for Alzheimer’s Disease Research for over 20 years, and Inaugural Chair for Ageing and Alzheimer's Disease at Edith Cowan University, Professor Martins is working to develop an early diagnostic blood test. |