Dr. Young is a Scientist in the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research. He holds honorary positions at The University of Melbourne, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The University of Western Australia, and Curtin University.
In 2019, he received his PhD in Epidemiology from The University of Melbourne and subsequently was awarded a 5-year Emerging Leadership Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) to expand his program of research on the co-occurrence of mental illness and addictions, quantifying the concentration of health burden attributable to this co-occurrence. His research has informed national and international guidelines for substance use disorder treatment, the prevention of overdose, access to health services for people released from prison, and pandemic management and preparedness. In recognition of the quality and impact of his work, he was conferred the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research in Public Health Research.
Areas of Research
Dr. Young is a psychiatric epidemiologist with leading expertise in data linkage methodology and the analysis of linked administrative data. His research aims to generate robust population-based, policy-relevant evidence on the co-occurrence of mental illness and addictions, often referred to as dual diagnosis, and its associated health burden and health service use patterns. His program of research applies unique data triangulation methods to quantify burden and is underpinned by the principles of inclusion health and mental health equity.
His current research includes:
- using data triangulation of survey, diagnostic screening, and linked administrative data sources to advance our understanding of the prevalence of dual diagnosis in the general population, and
- applying novel twin and family study designs to understand and disentangle the roles of familial factors – both genetic and early environmental – and social (e.g., ‘individual’) risk factors in the onset and co-occurrence of mental illness and addictions.
Publications
View Dr. Young’s publications on Google Scholar