New network for mental health research

A new national collaboration to transform the way mental health treatment is developed and tested will be led by Deakin University and partners including The University of Western Australia, with $12 million support from the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

The Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trial Network (MAGNET) will start as a five-year project that will be funded through the MRFF's Million Minds Mission, as recently announced in the Federal Budget.

Professor Sean Hood, Head of UWA Medical School’s Psychiatry Division, and Osvaldo Almeida, Professor in Psychiatry, also from the UWA Medical School, are among 50 chief investigators involved in the project.

Professor Hood said nearly one in two Australians would experience mental health issues over the course of their lifetime, and in any one year, 20 per cent of Australians would experience a mental health disorder.

“If left untreated the consequences can be devastating for those individuals, their loved ones, and for our community. MAGNET enables Australia’s leading mental health researchers to combine our research skills  to tackle this unmet need," Professor Hood said.

“UWA is delighted to be involved in this project, which will include research from UWA’s Young Lives Matter Foundation to identify mental health issues in young adults and provide insight into what can be done to improve outcomes.”

"Nearly one in two Australians will experience mental health issues over the course of their lifetime, and in any one year, 20 per cent of Australians will experience a mental health disorder"

Professor Sean Hood

Project lead, Professor Michael Berk, Director of the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT) at Deakin University, said that MAGNET would build Australia's research capacity in adult mental health.

“MAGNET will bring together more than 100 of Australia's lead research institutions, health services and lived experience experts to develop much needed new treatments,” Professor Berk said.

“By creating lasting forums of knowledge and expertise, MAGNET will drive prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and recovery in mental health and also provide the very costly, specialised resources needed to run the most ambitious, diverse clinical trials.

“Our goal is to improve mental health in Australia and around the world.”

The collaboration was initiated by Dr Anthony Filippis, CEO at Neurosciences Victoria, who said mental health conditions caused distress across the age spectrum and were the greatest cause of disability among working-aged adults in Australia.

“To really empower people to improve their quality of life, it is essential that we examine various treatment options,” Dr Filippis said.

MAGNET includes researchers, consumer and carer groups, practitioner Colleges, research peak bodies, health systems and industry partners, insurers and Government agencies across all mental health conditions, from psychosis to eating disorders to addiction.

Community partnerships, enabled by a Consumer and Carer Participation Framework and First Nations, Cultural and Linguistically Diverse (CALD), and LGBTQIA Advisory Groups, will help put the lived experience of people with mental health conditions at the centre of research efforts, ensuring the clinical outcomes from that research are truly effective.

MAGNET partners also include Neurosciences Victoria, Swinburne University of Technology, Monash University, The University of Queensland, Black Dog Institute, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, Western Sydney University, Victoria University, Australian National University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Newcastle, Flinders University, University of the Sunshine Coast, University of Tasmania, Curtin University, The George Institute for Global Health, SANE Australia, Mental Health Australia, the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia, Prevention United, and mental health charity One in Five.