Clinical Leaders

Key leadership positions at the Orygen Youth Health include:


Professor Andrew Chanen

Professor Andrew Chanen is Director of Clinical Services at Orygen Specialist Program, Melbourne, Australia and Deputy Research Director at Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health & Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne. Andrew’s clinical, research and training interests lie in prevention and early intervention for severe mental disorders, principally personality disorders, along with mood and psychotic disorders. He established and directs the Helping Young People Early (HYPE) program, a clinical, research and training program investigating the understanding of and prevention and early intervention for severe personality disorder, particularly borderline personality disorder in youth. HYPE was the 2010 Gold Award winner for best specialist mental health service at the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Service Achievement Awards and was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Award for advancing healthcare at the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards, 2012. Andrew currently receives grant funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and has over 60 scientific publications. Andrew serves on the Editorial Boards of Early Intervention in Psychiatry, Personality and Mental Health, Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, and Psychopathology. He is President of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD). He is a member of the ICD-11 Review Group for the Classification of Personality Disorders and has previously served on numerous expert groups including The Australian Government’s Expert Reference Group on Borderline Personality Disorder, the Development Group for the NHMRC Clinical Practice Guideline for Borderline Personality Disorder and the NHMRC/beyondblue Clinical Practice Guideline for Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults.


Associate Professor Jane Edwards

Jane is an Associate Professor and the Deputy Clinical Director of Orygen Specialist Program and a Fellow of the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne.  She has worked as a clinical psychologist in public mental health services for 25 years.

Jane has played a central role evolving the EPPIC clinical program since 1993, which has made a major impact both nationally and internationally in terms of service delivery in early psychosis.  She has been the key investigator for two early psychosis studies, 'Recovery Plus' and the 'Cannabis and Psychosis (CAP)’ Project, both randomised controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral interventions. Jane’s PhD on emotion recognition in first-episode schizophrenia was conferred in 1998.  She was awarded a Lise Meitner Postdoctoral Scholarship and based at the Vienna General Hospital 2002–2004.  

Jane has co-authored two books, and over 40 journal papers, 15 book chapters and ten treatment manuals. Her current role at Orygen includes management/service development, clinical and research activities.