Orygen Youth Health (OYH) is a leading knowledge and research translation organization in the world that is based in Melbourne Australia. The organization is mostly focused on young people who are mentally ill. Historically, the organization was founded in 1988 as Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Center (EPPIC) at the Aubrey Lewis Unit of the Royal Park Hospital. At the time of its establishment, its main focus was on delivering assistance to young individuals being hospitalized as they experience their fast psychosis episodes. Among the aspirations that led to the dedication of a ward for the special purpose was to reduce some of the causes of secondary mobility (Jorm, 2012).
As for the unit that deals with inpatient services, it was filled with medical practitioners and allied health staff who were willing to work together with the young people. In fact, specific needs and issues that used to affect the young people during their first episodes of psychosis were addressed. In June 1992, the EPPIC model was declared officially, at a time which marked the transfer of treatment focus to the community. Nonetheless, this marked an extension of the catchment area to cover 800,000 people in the North Western and the Western parts of the Melbourne. The organization produced various goods and services among them are at least 5000 youth mental health workers, an online learning platform and clinical manuals among others.
As a result of the migration to the community, there was the opening of and Outpatient Clinic in Poplar Road which later led to the establishment and growth of the community based service components for instance the Early Psychosis Assessment and the treatment team that is home based, managers who are specialized with clinical cases, the all-inclusive group program and the robust initiative for community awareness among others. Most importantly, this initiative saw that all the crucial interventions are delivered in an integrated and seamless manner through one institution (McGorry, Bates and Birchwood, 2013).
Establishment of the targeted components promoted the provision of all services within the confinement of one organization inclusive of the 24 hour crisis care, community awareness and research. In the year 1995, the all –inclusive program for young individuals who were experiencing first episodes of psychosis was improved by the establishment of the PACE clinic whose main focus was on individuals who were identified for having a higher vulnerability of developing psychotic illness or experiencing low level psychotic symptoms. In 1996, EPPIC hosted the first international conference on Early Psychosis with an aim of creating awareness on the information about early psychosis development. The conference brought together experts at the international level who formed the International Early Psychosis Association (IEPA) in the year 1997. In 2001, there was the formation of the Orygen Research Center (a collaborative projects between the University of Melbourne, Colonial Foundation and the Melbourne Health) due to the philanthropic investment that Colonial Foundation. Orygen experienced immense growth and offered comprehensive clinical services that that effectively addressed health needs of young individuals who had a variety of emerging mental health problems and problems related to substance use through its sub programs (James, 2007).
In 2014, the institution was rebranded to Orygen. For over 30 years hitherto, the institution have successfully managed to establish itself on the global map as the pre-eminent center for mental ill-health research and dissemination of knowledge. As far as revenue is concerned, the organization has successfully managed to earn nearly nineteen million dollars by the end of financial year 2015. This funding was realized from both government and non-governmental organizations and was allocated towards prosecution of Orygen’s mission of minimizing the impact of mental ill-health not only on the young people but also their families and the society at large (McGorry, 2007).
Orygen’s organization is non-profit organization that is owned by three members that is the Colonial Foundation, Melbourne Health and the University of Melbourne. As an approved research institute the institution is led by a Board of Directors that comprise of Mr. Peter Smedley as the chairman and Professor Patrick McGorry as the executive director. Apparently, the organization has a total of eight thousand employees across all their services and the institution manages at least one thousand four hundred beds. The main principles of the organization include the focus on youth, early intervention in relation to mental disorders, clinical staging or diagnosis, evidence based practice, provision of youth friendly service, participation of the youth, family peer support and participation, functional recovery and promotion of mental health (McGorry, 2007).
The operational plan of the organization involves the growth on the workforce capability which entails delivering accessible expertise as far as the services, professionals and the community is concerned. Moreover, this includes developing, establishing and operationalizing the expert network for Orygen. As for the leadership, the growth workforce capability aims at providing leadership at both the national and the international level together with workforce and professional development. Under this umbrella, the company intends to facilitate the development, establishment and operationalize the Orygen Graduate School, the Orygen innovation lab and also develop academic field for YMH services and the development of workforce.
Through the workforce capability the organization intends come up with a trusted expert community for youth mental health. This committee will be responsible for developing, establishing and initiating operations at the Orygen Campus. Moreover, the expert community will develop and facilitate the implementation of the marketing strategy for Orygen. Last but not least, the workforce capability was to consist of the delivery sector that is in charge of innovation and accessibility. As for this sector, they were to be in charge of the attraction and development of the youth mental health and functional expertise. Moreover, the innovation and accessibility sector will be responsible for establishing a model that supports their line of work and improves on the knowledge transfer capabilities.
As for the operation plan, the academic field of the YMH was to develop and research on the validity of education in relation to workforce development and also come up with the scope and research translation expertise. Moreover, under the operational plan was the establishment of the Orygen Campus infrastructure. In regard to the marketing strategy, there was the need for increase of the revenue ad establishment of the office infrastructure which will go hand in hand with the development and implementation of the marketing plan. Moreover, the operational plan involved the process of coming up with a model that will support the innovation and accessibility through the process of building organizational capacity and establishing frameworks for developing products and innovation. On the knowledge transfer capabilities, it was essential that the capabilities be aligned to the requirements of the business. For the Campus there was the plan for extension of eLearning capabilities and expansion of surge capacity (James, 2007).
References
McGorry, P.D., 2007. The specialist youth mental health model: strengthening the weakest link in the public mental health system. Medical Journal of Australia, 187(7), p.S53.
James, A.M., 2007. Principles of youth participation in mental health services. Medical Journal of Australia, 187(7), p.S57.
McGorry, P., Bates, T. and Birchwood, M., 2013. Designing youth mental health services for the 21st century: examples from Australia, Ireland and the UK. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(s54), pp.s30-s35.
Jorm, A.F., 2012. Mental health literacy: empowering the community to take action for better mental health. American Psychologist, 67(3), p.231.
Australian Clinical Guidelines for Early Psychosis. Orygen Youth Health, 2010.
