MAPrc's new premises launched
Submitted by maprc on Wed, 11/06/2013 - 14:51
On October 1, MAPrc was officially launched by Her Excellency the Governor-General Quentin Bryce at its new location on St Kilda Road. MAPrc has been evolving and growing since 1994 and Her Excellency has been the Centre's Patron since 2009. Today MAPrc has 170 staff and students and runs 102 clinical trials in the areas of women's mental health, psychiatric neurotechnology, psychopharmacology, mental health services research and cognitive neuropsychology.
During a visit through the Centre, Her Excellency spoke with staff about their research which includes the development of deep brain stimulation for the treatment of depression, the use of hormones to treat schizophrenia, the development of cognitive strategies for people with schizophrenia and brain stimulation treatments for autism.
Her Excellency spoke at the reception about the importance of having a clinical research centre within a community setting as this allowed research findings to be translated into innovative new treatments, a model that could be replicated in other parts of Australia. Her Excellency highlighted how the Centre's co-location, along with the St Kilda Rd Community Psychiatry Clinic, in a commercial building was an indication of the progress made in minimising the stigma associated with mental illness, with psychiatry patients no longer hidden from view in remote asylums. Her Excellency concluded that there was a need within the broader community for the development of new treatments, understanding and services for people with mental illnesses with MAPrc ideally placed to achieve these goals. Photographs from the launch can be viewed here.