Helen Milroy named finalist for Human Rights Medal

Professor Helen Milroy, from the School of Health and Medical Sciences at The University of Western Australia, has been announced as a finalist for the 2021 Human Rights Medal. 

Every year the Australian Human Rights Commission holds the awards to celebrate human rights achievements and acknowledge the important work of organisations, businesses and individuals across the nation.

Professor Milroy is an Aboriginal doctor, child psychiatrist, professor, commissioner, artist, advocate and storyteller who earlier this month won the Whitley Award’s Young Children’s Reader Category for her book Backyard Birds. 

She has worked for decades to improve the mental health and wellbeing of our First Nations communities as well as the rights of all our children to have safe and nurturing childhoods.

A proud descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region, she has developed extensive clinical training and education in cross-cultural models of care, healing from trauma and currently supervises a large research team. 

Professor Milroy has been on numerous state and national mental health advisory committees including the National Mental Health Commission. From 2013 to 2017 she was a commissioner for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 

She is currently on the Ministerial Taskforce examining infant, child, and adolescent mental health services in Western Australia.

In addition to being Stan Perron Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UWA and the Child and Adolescent Health Service (funded by Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation), Professor Milroy is co-director of Embrace and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute.

The winners of the award will be announced online on Human Rights Day, Friday 10 December.