- Innovation grants awarded to improve child and youth mental
health in WA
- Nearly $4.5 million allocated to three winners to roll
out innovative solutions
- Focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child
and youth mental health
Three recipients
will share in
almost $4.5 million for innovation programs to boost care in child and youth
mental health in Western Australia.
Medical
Research Minister Stephen Dawson announced three winners of theInnovation Challenge – Child and Youth Mental
Health, which is supported by the Cook Government's Future Health and
Innovation Fund (FHRI).
The
Innovation Challenge was launched to stimulate innovation in WA and the
development and delivery of a solution to make significant improvements in child
and youth mental health.
Stage
one of the Innovation Challenge, announced in 2021, awarded 11 applicants up to
$50,000 each to undertake feasibility studies or build prototypes to progress
their ideas.
These
teams were then given the opportunity to apply for stage two, competing for up
to $1.5 million to build on their outcomes of stage one and to fully develop
and roll out their concepts.
The Innovation
Challenge originally intended to award only one winner, however due to the
outstanding quality of applications, the expert panel recommended three
recipients to undertake their programs.
The three programs
include:
- a
simple genetic test to personalise medication management for children and youth
living with mental health conditions;
- a child
and youth mental health project to improve treatment access in rural and
regional WA, in collaboration with health service providers; and
- an
innovative digital and culturally appropriate tablet-based app to help improve
the hearing and mental health outcomes of Aboriginal children.
Further information
about the grant recipients can be found on the FHRI Fund -
funding outcomes website.
Comments attributed to Medical Research Minister Stephen
Dawson:
"The Cook
Government is committed to helping drive outcomes and cement WA's expertise in
child health research and precision health.
"Congratulations to
these three winners,
whose work will advance child and youth mental health research and innovation in
WA.
"Innovation is essential
to improve health
outcomes and the Innovation Challenge
has certainly exceeded expectations with three projects being greenlit to provide
much needed support in the mental health space for WA children, youth and their
families.
"I look forward to
seeing our three winners implementing their programs which I know will lead to
better outcomes for child and youth mental health in WA."
