Jackie Curtis (psychiatrist)

Jacqueline E. Curtis AM, best known as Jackie Curtis, is a psychiatrist^[1] and mental health clinician, director of the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network,^[2] and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2024 for "service to medicine, particularly as a mental health clinician and researcher".^[3] Her research aims to reduce health inequalities among communities and increase life expectancy.^[4] She is a professor at the University of New South Wales.^[5]

Curtis graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of New South Wales.^[6]

Curtis's research bridges the gaps between mental and physical health care.^[7] Curtis is the clinical lead and a psychiatric professor at the Youth Mental Health within the South Eastern Sydney Local Area Health District. She is co-founder of iphYs, an international working group which advocates for improved physical health outcomes for young people who experience mental health conditions such as psychosis.^[8] Curtis is also a member of the international organisation, the World Health Organisation, for international guidelines on the management of physical health amongst adults and young people with severe mental disorders.^[9]

During Curtis's Margaret Tobin oration, on the intersection of mental and physical health, and the colleagues and patients who impacted her journey, she highlighted the following calls to action:

• Each practitioner is responsible for their patient's quality of care, and practitioners need to 'stand with the patients' and put themselves on the 'right side of history'.
• Administrative psychiatry is not separate from the clinicians day job, and it is important to go where your observations take you.
• Public psychiatry is very rewarding, and with disadvantaged patients, together with over-worked colleagues, clinicians have the potential to make a difference.^[10]

Curtis had over 5,900 citations and an H index of 32 as at May 2025.^[11] Select publications from Curtis include the following:

• Curtis J; Teasdale SB; Morell R; Wadhwa P; Watkins A; Lederman O; O'Donnell C; et al., (2024), 'The Implementation of a lifestyle intervention to prevent the gain of weight and cardiometabolic abnormalities...: The Keeping the Body in Mind program', Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 18, pp. 731 - 738, doi.org/10.1111/eip.13508.^[12]
• Sara G; Gould P; Curtis J; et al. (2023), 'Vaccine-preventable hospitalisations in adult mental health service users', Psych Medicine, 53, pp. 7232 - 7241, doi.org/10.1017/S0033291723000776.^[13]
• Curtis J; Teasdale S; Morell R; Wadhwa P; Lederman O; Fibbins H; et al., (2022), 'Implementation of a life-skills and lifestyle intervention to prevent cardiometabolic abnormalities and weight-gain in first-episode psychosis: the Body in Mind program', Euro Psych , 65, pp. S131 - S132, doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.359.^[14]
• McKeon G; Curtis J; Rosenbaum S, (2022), 'Promoting physical activity for improving mental health: A review of updated evidence', Curr Opinion in Psych, 35, pp. 270 - 276, doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000796.^[15]

• 2023 – Margaret Tobin award for administrative psychiatry^[16]
• 2024 – Member of the Order of Australia^[17]