AOTY - Victoria's candidate Patrick McGorry

Youth psychologist Patrick McGorry thinks it is a sign of changing times that he has been chosen as Victoria's candidate for Australian of the Year.

Thirty years ago, when he started as a psychologist, he says a mentally ill young person would probably have only been treated once police brought them handcuffed, in a psychotic state, to a hospital emergency ward late at night.

Now, he says, their chances of being diagnosed early, supported in a youth-friendly environment, where people are optimistic about their chances of recovery and then returning to school and work, are much higher.

Mental health 'neglected'

"People are finally realising mental health is one of the hidden .. really big ticket public health items and it's been neglected seriously until just about now," he told AAP.

"I think that's starting to change, so I think this nomination is probably a reflection of that."

Mr McGorry, 57, is executive director of Melbourne's Orygen Youth Health, which has pioneered a youth-focused approach to treating mental health and is Australia's largest mental health research centre.

Orygen and Headspace, Australia's National Youth Mental Health Foundation, of which Mr McGorry is also director, treat young people with mental illness early, giving them a much greater chance of recovering from mild illnesses and managing more severe ones.

Suicide rates high

Mr McGorry says the suicide rate among severely mentally ill youths is very high, at 10-15 per cent, but even adolescents with mild to moderate mental illnesses can become suicidal if not supported with care.

"A lot of suicides occur ... in people with mild-to-moderate problems, they're more transient perhaps, they get intensely distressed, perhaps by a breakup of a relationship," he says.

"And depending on their level of support and coping mechanisms and perhaps the availability of help, they actually do end up killing themselves even though technically they may not have such a serious mental health problem."

What young people need, he says, is early diagnosis, a positive and youth-friendly environment and multi-disciplinary care for the first five years.

Given that, more than 80 per cent would go on to make "a pretty good recovery", while the remaining 20 per cent would require longer term support.

Preventative health care 'needed'

He says running a more preventative mental health system nationally would end up costing about one third of the current system, but so far there have only been "islands of progress".

He is hoping his candidacy for the Australian of the Year award, which will be announced next Monday, will help those islands expand.

"That's what I'd like to see, re-engineering, much stronger investment and I suppose the whole of the Australian community realising it's an issue for them, not just for the three or four per cent of the seriously mentally ill, it's something that's going to be to everyone's benefit."