With 75% of all mental illness manifesting before the age of 25, there is a great need to change the way in which clinical care is delivered to young people with emerging mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, other mood disorders and psychosis. Specialised clinical assessment is required as well as effective psychosocial services. Young people need access to models of care customised to reflect their unique, individual needs.
The Youth Mental Health and Technology Team, led by Professor Ian Hickie, puts young people at the centre of their own care. We partner with health services to develop innovative treatments for those aged 12-25 with emerging mental health disorders.
Our extensive collaborations with health service providers, industry, government, philanthropic and research organisations enable us to quickly and effectively translate our research findings into large-scale health system innovations and mental health policy reform, facilitating continuous improvements to mental health services for the benefit of young people in Australia.
The Youth Mental Health and Technology team at the Brain and Mind Centre adopts a research strategy in which lived experience is embedded as a foundational principle across all programs of work by:
This embedded model is informed by our ongoing partnerships with young people and their families and continually refined through collaborative practice. It aims to strengthen best practice by ensuring that lived experience meaningfully informs and contributes to a broader framework for embedding lived experience voices in youth mental health research.
We are developing next generation clinical and systems-based decision support tools, utilising participatory systems modelling approaches. We harness data science methods and innovation from across disciplines in order to achieve advances in the mental health and mental wealth of young people. |
Research programs
Research lead
A/Prof Jo-Ann Occhipinti
We are dedicated to developing digital mental health technologies that deliver personalised and measurement-based care to young people experiencing mental ill health. By harnessing technology, we aim to increase access to specialised mental health care and empower young people and their families to work alongside clinicians in shared decision-making.
We leverage data science and complex systems methodologies to develop predictive and causal models. Our focus is on understanding the onset and course of illness to guide indicated prevention and early interventions.
We engage in continuous codesign and user testing with individuals with lived experience, their families, and service providers. This collaboration ensures that our discoveries are transformed into practical, user-friendly digital tools.
We rigorously test and refine our tools based on learnings from implementation in real-world settings. Evaluation ensures that our solutions are effective, sustainable, and aligned with the needs of young people and their support networks.
Our research programs
Developed following more than 10 years of research by our team, the BMC Youth Model promotes an enhanced youth mental health model of care. It incorporates evidence-based processes, including measurement-based care and routine outcome monitoring. This model explicitly aims to prevent progression to more complex and severe forms of illness, and change trajectories for young people.
Research programs
We are dedicated to transforming our understanding of the causal, pathophysiological mechanisms and major pathways leading to mood disorders in young people, as well as developing and testing novel strategies to improve their clinical (mental and physical) and functional outcomes. By studying a broad spectrum of clinical, behavioural, biological, and medical measures as young people move through development and clinical care, we aim to uncover clinical subtypes, pathways, and treatment targets that can transform the way we prevent and manage mental health conditions in young people. We collaborate with leaders in genetics, clinical mental health, circadian biology, wearables, molecular diagnostics, and neurobiology from University of Oxford (UK), National Institute of Mental Health (US), Newcastle University (UK), University of California San Diego (US), University of Queensland, Flinders University, and QIMR Berghofer.
Our focus and approach:
Dr Jacob Crouse, A/Prof Elizabeth Scott
Innovations in mental health care need strong policy support. Successful implementation of change is difficult, especially in systems as complex as mental health care.
The Mental Health Policy stream of our work aims to facilitate this implementation, focusing on supporting effective policymaking to develop healthier, wealthier and more equitable communities.
Mental health spans medical, clinical and psychosocial aspects in healthcare, as well as drawing on other key areas of concern to young people, like education, employment, housing and social connection. Our research explores this broader ‘ecosystem’, aiming to help guide investment towards best value policies and models of care.
To achieve this goal, we take an inter-disciplinary research approach from public policy, economics, system science and implementation science. Our goal is to better understand the systemic drivers of mental health, developing a ‘societal economic perspective’ to assess policy investments (health, economic, and economic impacts), and a ‘place-based implementation’ approach that supports the development of best-value and equitable policy investments, tailored for local implementation.
A critical element of this work is in relation to accountability, developing the technology or processes by which our mental health system can better understand the impact it has on people’s lives and how it can improve.
We focus on three key questions:
Dr Sebastian Rosenberg, Dr Adam Skinner
Combine economic, social and medical data to forecast need and design services to address the growing crisis.
Authors: Jo-An Occhipinti , Adam Skinner , P. Murali Doraiswamy , Cameron Fox , Helen Herrman , Shekhar Saxena , Elisha London , Yun Ju Christine Song & Ian B. Hickie
26 September, 2021
Paul Crosland, Nicholas Ho, Syed Hossein Hosseini, Catherine Vacher, Adam Skinner, Andrea N. Natsky, Sebastian Rosenberg, Raphael Hasudungan, Sam Huntley, Yun Ju Christine Song, Grace Yeeun Lee, Deborah A. Marshall, Jo-An Occhipinti,* Ian B. Hickie.* (*joint senior authors) – Cost effectiveness of eight system-level strategies for enhancing the mental health of young people using system dynamics modelling and simulation. Lancet Psychiatry, 11(2), 123–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(23)00396-6
Louise Freebairn, Jo-An Occhipinti, Samantha Huntley, Yun Ju C Song, Grace Yeeun Lee, Adam Skinner, Samuel Hockey, Kenny Lawson, Ian B. Hickie. Participatory methods for systems modelling of youth mental health: An implementation protocol. JIMR Research Protocols 2022: 7(11): e32988. doi: 10.2196/32988.
Adam Skinner, Nathaniel Osgood, Jo-An Occhipinti, Yun Ju Christine Song, Ian B. Hickie. Unemployment and underemployment are causes of suicide. Science Advances, July 12, 2023: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg3758
Authors: Ian B Hickie, Tracey A Davenport, Jane M Burns, Alyssa C Milton, Laura Ospina‐Pinillos, Lisa Whittle, Cristina S Ricci, Larisa T McLoughlin, John Mendoza Shane P Cross, Sarah E Piper, Frank Iorfino, Haley M LaMonica
Date: 06 October 2019
Authors: Frank Iorfino, Elizabeth M. Scott, Joanne S. Carpenter, Shane P. Cross, Daniel F. Hermens, Madhura Killedar, Alissa Nichles, Natalia Zmicerevska, Django White, Adam J. Guastella, Jan Scott, Patrick D. McGorry, Ian B. Hickie.
Date: August, 2019
Authors: Jo-An Atkinson, Andrew Page, Mark Heffernan, Geoff McDonnell, Ante Prodan, Bill Campos, Graham Meadows, Ian B Hickie.
Date: December 2018
Authors: Joanne S. Carpenter, Rébecca Robillard, Daniel F. Hermens, Sharon L. Naismith, Christopher Gordon, Elizabeth M. Scott, Ian B. Hickie
Date: January 2017
Authors: Brittany L. Mitchell, Adrian I. Campos, Miguel E. Rentería, Richard Parker, Lenore Sullivan, Kerrie McAloney, Baptiste Couvy-Duchesne, Sarah E. Medland, Nathan A. Gillespie, Jan Scott, Brendan P. Zietsch, Penelope A. Lind, Nicholas G. Martin and Ian B. Hickie.
Date: June 2019
Authors: Haley M LaMonica, Frank Iorfino, Grace Yeeun Lee, Sarah Piper, Jo-An Occhipinti, Tracey A Davenport, Shane Cross, Alyssa Milton, Laura Ospina-Pinillos, Lisa Whittle, Shelley C Rowe, Mitchell Dowling, Elizabeth Stewart, Antonia Ottavio, Samuel Hockey, Vanessa Wan Sze Cheng, Jane Burns, Elizabeth M Scott, Ian B Hickie.
Date: March 2022
Authors: Aila Naderbagi, Victoria Loblay, Iqthyer Uddin Md Zahed, Mahalakshmi Ekambareshwar, Adam Poulsen, Yun J C Song, Laura Ospina-Pinillos, Michael Krausz, Mostafa Mamdouh Kamel, Ian B Hickie, Haley M LaMonica
Date: July 2024
Authors: Haley M LaMonica, Jacob J Crouse, Yun J C Song, Mafruha Alam, Mahalakshmi Ekambareswhar, Victoria Loblay, Adam Yoon, Grace Cha, Chloe Wilson, Madelaine Sweeney-Nash, Nathanael Foo, Melissa Teo, Mikael Perhirin, Jakelin Troy, Ian B Hickie.
Date: October 2022