Wednesday 19 November 2025
Professor Pat Dudgeon AM receives prestigious mental health award
Professor Pat Dudgeon AM, Australia’s first Aboriginal psychologist, has been awarded the Australian Mental Health Prize in recognition of her outstanding leadership and lifelong contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health at both national and community levels.
“It is an honour to be a recipient of the 2025 Australian Mental Health Prize. It is wonderful recognition of the work that my colleagues and I have developed over two decades, to shape the understanding of Indigenous mental health and wellbeing,” said Professor Dudgeon.
As Director of the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention at the University of Western Australia, Professor Dudgeon has been instrumental in embedding cultural, strengths-based and lived experience perspectives into policy and services.
Data released last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that Indigenous suicides continue to rise and are now at nearly three times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians. *
Evidence demonstrates that suicide prevention programs designed and delivered within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are most effective in promoting social and emotional wellbeing and are essential to reducing suicide rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. **
Professor Dudgeon emphasised that while much remains to be done, she is committed to leading this work, supported by Department of Health, Disability and Ageing funding for the Centre through to 2028.
“We will be expanding our research and collaborations and bringing some important new programs into the Centre, overseen by Professor Helen Milroy and myself,” said Pat Dudgeon.“We will soon be renaming the Centre to reflect its Aboriginal identity and growing remit.”
2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the Australian Mental Health Prize, an annual award honouring Australians who have made exceptional contributions to either the promotion of mental health, or the prevention and treatment of mental illness.
Established in 2016 by the University of New South Wales, the Prize has recognised researchers, advocates, clinicians, peer workers and community leaders, across four categories; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Lived Experience, Professional and Community Hero.
The Prize celebrates the ground-breaking work being carried out across the country, raises public awareness for mental health, and encourages ongoing improvement to services and outcomes for people living with mental illness.
* Intentional self-harm deaths (Suicide) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2024, Australian Bureau of Statistics
** Dudgeon, P, Cox, A, Walker, R, Calma, T, Milroy, J, Ring, I, Georgatos, G, Holland, C & Luxford, Y 2016, Solutions that Work: What the Evidence of our People Tell Us: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Report. School of Indigenous Studies, UWA,