Academy Fellow

Professor Eóin Killackey’s work has had a significant impact on research and practice in the area of youth mental health. His specific research was the first in the world to examine a means of intervention to promote functional recovery in young people with severe mental illness. Functional recovery is the complement of symptomatic recovery and is concerned with returning to age- appropriate functional tasks which for young people are often to do with education and employment. Prior to his research, the focus in youth mental health research was reduction in symptoms. While this was achieved, up to 90% of young people with severe mental illnesses did not return to school or employment. Instead, many worked through various welfare payments before ending on a Disability Support Pension, despite the most sought-after outcomes by young people with severe mental illness being education and employment. Professor Killackey’s research using an intervention called Individual Placement and Support (IPS), showed that nearly 90% of young people with psychotic illness could be aided to return to school or work and that 12 months post intervention 80% of those 90% were still vocationally involved. IPS was originally developed in the USA for older adults. A key element of Killackey’s work was adapting this to a younger cohort and broadening the focus to include education, thus giving the intervention a career rather than job focus which is more developmentally appropriate for young people. This work has been described by international colleagues as pioneering and has been widely translated in Australia and overseas (e.g. Ireland, UK, New Zealand, Norway, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Canada). 

Professor Killackey has co-led two Lancet Psychiatry Commissions, one on Youth Mental Health, and one on physical health in mental health, as well as writing the first Australian and New Zealand clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of Schizophrenia. All three of these documents have had a large academic, policy and practice impact. 

With respect to youth mental health more generally, Professor Killackey has authored two important reports. The first was in 2010 when he led the project and the writing of a report commissioned by the then National Advisory Council in Mental Health entitled Early Psychosis Feasibility Study Report. This became the basis for the policy that established the federally funded headspace Early Psychosis Youth Services which started operation in 2014 and continues to provide services around the country today. Professor Killackey also created the Model Fidelity Scale for this program which is used to ensure consistency and quality of service provision across the country. In 2019, Professor Killackey, working in partnership with the World Economic Forum, led a project and wrote a report describing a Global Framework for Youth Mental Health. This report is now providing a basis for the development of approaches to youth mental health in a variety of low and middle resource settings throughout the world. 

Immediate Past-President IEPA 2023 – 2026

Treasurer – International Association for Youth Mental Health 

Awards:

2008 – Organon Medal Australasian - Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research

2011 – Alumnus of the Year - Deakin University

2011 – Consumer Research Award – Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research

2015 – Knowledge Dissemination Award - Australian Rotary Health/Society for Mental Health Research

2016 – SMHR Oration - Society for Mental Health Research

Memberships:

International Association for Youth Mental Health

International Association for Early Intervention in Youth Mental Health

Schizophrenia International Research Society

Society for Mental Health Research

Firth J, Siddiqi N, Koyanagi A, Siskind D, Rosenbaum S, Galletly C, et al & Killackey E.. The Lancet Psychiatry Commission: a blueprint for protecting physical health in people with mental illness. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2019;6(8):675-712.

McGorry PD, Mei C, Dalal N, Alvarez-Jimenez M, Blakemore S-J, Browne V, et al. & Killackey E. The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2024;11(9):731-74.

Killackey E, Hodges C, Browne V, Gow E, Varnum P, McGorry P, et al. A Global Framework for Youth Mental Health: Investing in Future Mental Capital for Individuals, Communities and Economies. Geneva: World Economic Forum; 2020.

Killackey E. Lived, loved, laboured, and learned: experience in youth mental health research. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2023.

Killackey E, Allott K, Jackson HJ, Scutella R, Tseng Y-P, Borland J, et al. Individual Placement and Support for Vocational Recovery in First Episode Psychosis: A randomized controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2019;214(2):76