Orygen-world centre of youth psychiatry

 Orygen  might be of international repute but it is still a target for graffiiti:  a recognized art form associated with young people, and fabulously displayed downtown in The Lanes  in Melbourne, as indeed in many cities.
As reported earlier, Victoria is moving to a state wide policy of designing and delivering children and youth mental health services for 0-25 year olds. Orygen has been a key research and clinical engine behind promoting  the extention of care pathways into early adulthood, in part as our understanding of neurodevelopment deepens and the plasticity of the brain is recognized as continuing well into the mid twenties .

A key focus for the centre has been the early detection of first episode pyschosis. This model is now being rolled out to other major mental health disorders, including the more common mood disorders of depression and anxiety and a number of research programmes are under way to add to our growing understanding of the trajectories of these conditions.

I also visited the Western Sunshine headspace site where I learnt more about the synergy, and inevitable tensions, between research and clinical care; and of the challenges of recruiting GPs in specialized settings. This is against a backdrop of a national shortage of GPs and a complicated funding system for payment where the option of salaried GPs has yet to be developed, in contrast to its mass roll out in the UK-which has its own problems.


Western Melbourne, Sunshine, Harvester Rd.