Today marks the official launch of Monash University’s Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, named in honour of Monash alumnus, the late Mr David Winston Turner.
The recent transformational gift from the late David Winston Turner, Australia’s largest single gift to mental health, will help the Turner Institute detect and treat mental health conditions, improving the lives of millions of sufferers.
The Turner Institute is the first research body at the University to take its name from a Monash graduate and benefactor, and will honour Mr Turner’s legacy by transforming how we understand and treat brain and mental health conditions across the lifespan.
Over the next five years, the David Winston Turner Endowment Fund will invest tens of millions of dollars in the Turner Institute, advancing research into obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), substance addiction, dementia, depression, ADHD and schizophrenia, among many other conditions.
The Turner Institute will be extended to include laboratory-based research in partnership with some of Australia’s leading health experts and bodies, through to clinical treatment of patients alongside the state’s leading hospitals.
Professor Kim Cornish, who leads the Turner Institute, remarked on the extraordinary generosity of the David Winston Turner Endowment Fund.
“We’re deeply humbled by, and grateful for, the David Winston Turner Endowment Fund’s commitment, which will allow the institute to grow its significant research into mental health and ultimately change lives for the better,” said Professor Cornish.
The generous gift contributes to the Change It. For Good. campaign, which is the largest public fundraising initiative in Monash University’s history. The campaign has achieved remarkable results so far, reaching the halfway mark of each of its three goals, including $370 million raised towards the goal of $500 million, more than 26,000 of the 50,000 donor target, and the confirmation of more than 100 new bequests.
The Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, formerly the Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, brings together researchers, clinicians, industry partners and community groups to develop innovative solutions for mental health problems that burden communities locally and globally.
