Centre for Mental Health Research (CMHR) Endowment

Our challenge

  • One in five Australians experiences a mental illness in any one year.
  • Depression is one of the leading causes of disease burden and the primary risk factor for suicide.
  • Only one third of people with a mental illness receive professional help. There are few mental health services in rural areas.
  • There is a high level of stigma associated with mental illness
  • Research is usually not informed by consumers (people with a lived experience of a mental illness) or their carers.
  • The life expectancy of citizens with a severe mental illness is 25 years less than the general population.

By giving to the CMHR endowment you can help us to continue to:

  • Develop and research innovative programs for:
    • preventing and treating mental illness
    • preventing suicide in young people
    • under-served rural communities
    • reducing stigma
  • Undertake research that is relevant to consumers and carers
  • Train Australia's future mental health research leaders
  • Translate our findings into services for the community and advice for policy makers. 

The Centre pioneered the development and evaluation of online self help mental health programs that are effective for preventing and treating mental illness, raising mental health awareness and reducing stigma.  We provide these programs to citizens around the world.  For example, our best known program MoodGYM is used by citizens in 222 national states around the world and has 800,000 registrants.  It has a brand recognition of 78 per cent among general practitioners. 

Despite its remarkable success, our e-mental health research and development program at CMHR is entirely dependent on external funding.

At CMHR we are passionate about asking the right questions, finding the answers, making a difference to policy and providing services that our research has shown works.

Please help us to help others through our research and development program.