Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health is our flagship partner
In 2001, the Colonial Foundation provided seed funding to catalyse Professor Patrick McGorry’s team’s initial work in early interventions for young people with mental ill-health. This led to the establishment of Orygen in 2001-02.
Over the next 17 years Colonial contributed $46.2million towards Orygen’s development of a comprehensive research base and service platform in youth mental health, including headspace centres and early psychosis centres throughout Australia. Orygen leveraged this $46.2million in philanthropic funding to generate nearly a billion dollars of Australian Government support for the youth mental health sector.
Ongoing Support:
The Colonial Foundation, through its ongoing support, has enabled Orygen to build organisational capacity and direct funding to where it is needed the most. The foresight and leadership of the Colonial Foundation has set us apart from other philanthropic funders.
The leveraged funding from successive Australian Governments has led to Orygen pioneering youth mental health programs, and Orygen is now considered a world leader in youth mental health research and knowledge translation. With mental ill-health the leading cause of disability and death among Australians aged 15-24, our support is having a profound impact on mental health services for young people across Australia.
Orygen’s leveraged achievements include:
- Early Psychosis Youth Centres
- headspace Youth Early Psychosis Program
- Primary Health Network Youth Severe funding
- headspace rollout and expansion
- headspace National Office
- Youth IPS (Individual Placement Support) employment system rollout
How we fund:
The Colonial Foundation has supported Orygen with, on average, $2.9 million each year for the past 17 years. We are currently two years into a further five year partnership.
We look forward to our continued involvement with Orygen and playing our part in improving mental health outcomes for young people and their families and transforming the landscape of mental health care across Australia.
