Australian research will play a leading role in the international response to youth mental health, with an innovative mental health platform developed by Orygen and the University of Melbourne now backed by $14 million in funding from Wellcome, a global charitable foundation.
The project will see Orygen Digital's award-winning digital mental health service MOST supercharged with the latest AI to become MOST-Nexus. This will be the world's first hyper-personalised and adaptive platform for youth mental health care.
MOST, which combines evidence-based therapy, peer support, remote clinical care and vocational support, is now integrated into more than 400 youth mental health services in Australia. It has proven highly effective in reducing anxiety and depression in young people aged between 12 and 25.
Chief of Orygen Digital and lead investigator, Professor Mario Alvarez, said the MOST-Nexus project was about combining global research leadership with youth-centred innovation and was key to easing pressure on overstretched mental health systems.
"This is a proud collaboration between Orygen and the University of Melbourne, working alongside European partners, the Telstra Foundation and UNICEF, and we are deeply grateful to Wellcome for backing this bold vision," Professor Alvarez said.
"MOST-Nexus is the next generation of digital youth mental health care – integrating the best of AI and adaptive human support, peer support, and culturally adaptable care – and we are committed to scaling this globally to tackle the youth mental health crisis worldwide."
Orygen Executive Director Professor Patrick McGorry AO said international collaborations such as this are critical to addressing the global youth mental health crisis.
"The recent Lancet Commission on youth mental health sounded the alarm on this global health crisis – it is now well accepted that mental ill-health is the primary threat to the health, wellbeing and productivity of young people around the world," Professor McGorry said.
"We are thrilled to see this home-grown innovation backed by partners across the globe to scale-up and meet this challenge head on."
L-R: Professor Pat McGorry AO, Professor Jane Gunn AO, Mario Alvarez-Jimenez, Jo Briskey MP, Dr Jen Nicholas, Professor Mike McGuckin, Jon Myer.
University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, Professor Emma Johnston AO, said the collaborators were united in their vision to increase access to personalised, prompt and effective mental health support for young people.
"This is another example of the world-class research we deliver at Melbourne, which improves the health and wellbeing of people around the world," Professor Johnston said.
Director of Mental Health at Wellcome, Professor Miranda Wolpert, said "we are delighted to support the groundbreaking digital mental health platform MOST to help develop personalised treatment to support young people with mental health problems globally."
Phase one of the project will see the creation of MOST-Nexus, integrating AI-driven personalisation to ensure users get the right clinical support tailored to their needs, optimising human support for better engagement, cost-effectiveness and scalability.
Phase two will adapt and evaluate MOST-Nexus internationally – in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain – and build a sustainable model for global expansion. This will transform youth mental health outcomes globally with a cost-effective mental health solution that can be integrated into overstretched services and can operate independently in low-resource settings.
