Vale Jackie Crowe
It is with great sadness that the Brain and Mind Centre, and our broader University of Sydney community, recognises the sudden and unexpected passing on the weekend of our great friend and colleague, Jackie Crowe.
Jackie Crowe (second from left) with Professor Ian Hickie, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Health Greg Hunt at Brain and Mind Centre last week.
We wish to convey our deepest sympathies to her family and join with them now in celebrating her life. Together, we recognise her profound contribution to mental health reform in this country. At the centre of all Jackie’s work was the drive to ensure that we all respond more effectively to those with mental health problems and their families.
Simply, Jackie was a remarkable person. Drawing on her expertise, personal insights and great compassion she spoke directly, and worked effectively, with all those who also wished to put those experiencing mental ill-health and their families at the centre of care. Her authenticity and her down-to-earth approach was an inspiration to all.
Jackie had been a National Mental Health Commissioner since 2012. In that capacity, she was central to many key initiatives including supporting the development of the peer workforce, ending seclusion and restraint in mental health services and greatly enhancing effective medical care for those living with mental illness.
In recent times, Jackie was central to the positioning of lived experiences at the centre of all of our Brain and Mind Centre-related programs in mental health services innovation and suicide prevention. Specifically, Jackie was an integral member of our new collaborative Innowell team which leads the delivery of the $30m Project Synergy for the Australian Government.
The Synergy project uses lived experiences to drive the development of new technologies to transform mental health services delivery. Collectively, we now have the opportunity to ensure that the effective delivery of this national program stands as a legacy to Jackie’s life purpose.
Jackie was also a passionate advocate for mental health research – advancing the needs for both new discoveries as well as the more effective implementation of current knowledge. She was keen to sign up personally for our work in the use of novel immune therapies as well as the systematic management of the metabolic complications of treatment. Jackie frequently encouraged others to use our personalised feedback programs to manipulate the body clock and enjoy its downstream effects on mood, energy, metabolism and well-being.
Jackie Crowe will be greatly missed, but always remembered, by those she so actively engaged at the Brain and Mind Centre.
