Professor Jackie Curtis has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours, for significant service to medicine, as a mental health clinician and researcher.
Professor Curtis, a youth psychiatrist, has had an influential career in the public mental health system, advocating powerfully for the needs of people with severe mental illness.
She created, with colleagues, the Keeping the Body in Mind Program of physical health support and the Positive Cardiometabolic Health Resources for people living with psychosis, which have resulted in a new professional focus on preventable illness in this group and influenced policy and practice internationally.
Professor Curtis also leads research in service system redesign for young people with mental health challenges, including psychosis, to improve the response to emerging mental illness at this critical time.
Professor Curtis is the Executive Director of the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network and is also the Clinical Lead, Youth Mental Health at the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) and a Conjoint Professor at the University of NSW, Sydney.
In 2023, she received the Margaret Tobin Award, for special achievement in administrative psychiatry, and delivered the prestigious Margaret Tobin Oration at the annual Congress of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, describing her journey of research and advocacy for appropriate physical healthcare for people living with psychosis.
Mr John Grill AO, the Chair of Mindgardens Neuroscience Network, said, “On behalf of all members of the Mindgardens Board, I congratulate Professor Curtis on this important public recognition of her contribution to improving the lives of people who experience severe mental illness.
Jackie is a first-rate clinician and researcher, and Mindgardens is immensely fortunate to have her as our Executive Director, leading our translational research program in mental health, drug and alcohol and neurological disorders.
I thank Jackie for her continuing commitment to this organisation and the people it serves, and I look forward to her continuing success.”
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Mindgardens Neuroscience Network acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures, and to Elders past, present and emerging.
We acknowledge the voices of people with lived experience, their carers, families and kinship groups. We recognise the expertise acquired through living with a mental health, drug and alcohol or neurological disorder and acknowledge those who care for people on their recovery journey. We place lived experience at the heart of all that we do.
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