Company Profile

Company Description:

Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health is the world’s leading research and knowledge translation organisation focusing on mental ill-health in young people.
 
At Orygen, our leadership and staff work to deliver cutting-edge research, policy development, innovative clinical services, and evidence-based training and education to ensure that there is continuous improvement in the treatments and care provided to young people experiencing mental ill-health.
 
Our work has created a new, more positive approach to the prevention and treatment of mental disorders, and has developed new models of care for young people with emerging disorders. This work has been translated into a worldwide shift in services and treatments to include a primary focus on getting well and staying well, and health care models that include partnership with young people and families.
 
Our vision is for all Young people to enjoy optimal mental health as they grow into adulthood.
 
Our mission is to reduce the impact of mental ill-health on young people, their families and society by:
 
- Providing young people with emerging mental illnesses with stigma-free access to holistic, high quality and evidence-based clinical services.
 
- Developing better interventions, treatments and service systems in youth mental health through research.
 
- Supporting communities to better respond to mental ill-health in young people through public education and service development.
 
Our operating principles and values are:
·         Young people: young people have the right to timely access to high quality, evidence-based, age-appropriate and respectful mental health care
·         Participation: young people, families, and the community are key partners in improving young people’s mental health
·         Evidence: policy, practice and services in youth mental health should be informed by the best available evidence of what works
·         Innovation: new approaches to prevention and care have enormous potential to improve mental health outcomes for young people
·         Optimism: with appropriate supports young people can and do recover from mental ill-health and go on to achieve great things with their lives
·         Our people: the quality and commitment of our team is integral to our success
 
Orygen has major collaborative partnerships with other research centres, and clinical-research organisations in Australia and around the world.  These partnerships allow for the development and conduct of major research studies that will contribute to a better understanding of appropriate interventions and service systems for young people at different stages of mental ill-health.

Orygen partners with headspace: the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, and Orygen leads four headspace centres in the northern and western areas of Melbourne.

Orygen also partners with a specialist regional youth mental health service (Orygen Youth Health Clinical Program (OYHCP) run by Melbourne Health), which operates from the same site as Orygen’s main site at 35 Poplar Road Parkville. OYHCP offers specialist care to over 800 young people with serious mental disorders per annum.

The work of Orygen over the past decade has had a profound impact on early intervention and youth mental health, leading what could be argued is the most significant change in the mental health field during that time. This work has created a new approach and constructive attitude to the prevention and treatment of mental disorders, and new models of care for young people with emerging disorders. It has been translated into a world-wide shift in services and treatments to include a substantial focus on early intervention in health system approaches to mental disorders.