As 2024 rapidly draws to a close and our minds turn towards celebrations with family and friends, I am reminded how quickly time passes. Established in 1991, it is sobering to appreciate that I have been based at the Centre for Adolescent Health since 1995 when I returned from training in the US. Even harder to believe that I have been the director of the Centre for the past 21 years. Over this time, it has been an absolute privilege to work with a constant flow of undergraduate and postgraduate research students, to engage with numerous projects large and small, and to work alongside such enthusiastic and hardworking colleagues – and young people – who are passionate about enhancing the outcomes for young people in Victoria, in Australia, in our region and around the world.

This newsletter provides links to a wealth of Christmas reading – and these are just some of the highlights. I am particularly thrilled about the recent launch of our new postgraduate masters on Leadership in Adolescent Health at The University of Melbourne. I commend Dr Anitra Wierenga on her own leadership in shepherding this proposal through the complex navigational channels required by the University. As few countries have any training capacity in adolescent health, our multidisciplinary course is increasingly attracting a national and global audience. I am equally pleased that our Centre of Research Excellence for Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health is able to support a one-off 50% scholarship for a candidate to undertake the new course.

Our longitudinal studies (CATS, 2000 Stories, International Youth Development Study) are reaping the rewards of many years of investment. The Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS) is in a particularly active phase, with a series of papers being finalised from the secondary school waves. Just out this week in Lancet Psychiatry is an important paper from CATS on the course of common mental disorders from 10-18 years of age which makes for sobering reading. We are also advancing highly topical analyses from VATS on social media use and mental health, on vaping and smoking, and also on LGBTQI+ status across adolescence, topics that are each highly relevant for contemporary young people. I would also like to commend Associate Professor Jess Heerde on her important work is using longitudinal data to shine a light on the health challenges faced by adolescents experiencing homelessness.

Over the past 15 years, the Centre for Adolescent Health has increasingly expanded its global impact, which can be appreciated when you review our list of 2024 publications. This year saw Professor Peter Azzopardi’s appointment to lead a new group on Global Adolescent Health within MCRI’s Population Health theme which I am especially pleased about. Pete played a major role in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Regional Health Partnership grant awarded to MCRI, the ReALiSE program (Regional Alliance for Learning in Systems for Equitable Child and Adolescent Health) will support a wide body of work on child and adolescent health in the Asia Pacific region.

I had two personal travel highlights this year. My first was a trip to Beijing where I helped launch a major policy paper in June on the health and wellbeing of China’s children and adolescents (Chen TJ et al. The Lancet 2024). This paper builds on the relationships we have been quietly building over the past 6 years or so with researchers at the University of Peking, a leading Chinese university. My second travel highlight was to Brazil in October where I was invited to headline the Global Education Meeting in Fortaleza on the importance of whole school approaches to health and wellbeing. Convened by UNESCO and held only every two years for national ministers of education, this provided an exciting opportunity to showcase the work our group has been leading on health promoting schools, which is all about reenvisaging schools as healthier communities for living and learning.

Finally, I am delighted that in 2025, we will be appointing the first George Patton Postdoctoral Fellow in Adolescent Health. Generous financial support from The University of Melbourne and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation will enable us to appoint three postdocs for three years at a time over the next nine years, with the goal of continuing the late Professor George Patton’s extraordinary research legacy.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff for your hard work and good humour as you engage in your work that, at its heart, aims to use research and education to influence policy and practice. I would also like to personally thank you for the many ways you have supported me personally, which I have greatly appreciated.

Finally, I would like to thank all of our supporters and donors for the trust you show us by investing in our work. Please do not hesitate to reach out in 2025 if you are interested in hearing more about any aspect of our work.

In the meantime, I would like to wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas, and trust that 2025 is a good year for you all. Let us all hope for a slightly less conflicted world next year.

Professor Susan Sawyer AM MBBS MD FRACP FSAHM
Director, Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children’s Hospital and Murdoch Children’s Research institute
Geoff and Helen Handbury Chair of Adolescent Health, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne