Behind every effective reform in mental health and addiction care is a capable, supported workforce. But sustaining that workforce — and growing the next generation — is one of our biggest challenges.

Join us for a morning of conversation and connection as we unpack what it takes to translate investment in people into real-world impact. Our panel will explore emerging models that embed change, persistent barriers, and how we can strengthen the link between capability building and better outcomes for individuals, services, and systems.

Hosted by the Hamilton Centre in collaboration with Mental Health Victoria and the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health & Wellbeing.

Facilitated by Turning Point’s Professor Dan Lubman AM, our expert panel will discuss how we can sustain the shift towards more integrated care, given the challenges faced by clinicians and workers in the Victorian AOD and Mental Health sectors.

Panel members

A/Prof Ravi Bhat AM,

Clinical Director, Goulburn Valley Health Mental Health and Wellbeing Service

Ms Madeleine Harradence,

Branch Secretary, Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (ANMF)

A/Prof Lee Allen,

Chair, Victorian Psychiatry Training Committee and Deputy Chief Psychiatrist

Event details

Date: Thursday, 11 December 2025

Time: 9am to 11:30am

Location: Turning Point/Hamilton Centre, Level 1, 110 Church Street, Richmond

Morning tea will be provided.

Background

Mental health and alcohol and other drug (AOD) reform has shown that lasting change depends not only on models of care, but on the people who deliver them. We’ve learned that workforce capability — the skills, supervision, leadership, and connection that enable integrated practice — is the bridge between policy intent and real-world impact.

Yet the challenges are growing: recruiting and retaining staff across disciplines, sustaining programs beyond short-term funding, building specialist pipelines, and supporting rural and regional workforces to thrive. At the same time, there are pockets of excellence and innovation across the sector — inspiring examples of capability building, training models, and integrated practice that demonstrate what’s possible and could be expanded or shared more widely.

This forum is a chance to bring those threads together: to celebrate what’s working, to reflect honestly on what’s hard, and to look ahead at how we strengthen the foundations — creating systems that value, develop, and sustain their people so that integrated care can flourish where it matters most: in everyday practice.

About us

Hamilton Centre is the Victorian centre for mental health and addiction. Through an innovative program of clinical, research and education and training streams, it works towards integrated care for people with co-occurring substance use or addiction and mental illness. Working with key stakeholders, including people with lived and living experience, the centre helps build the capability of healthcare workers within Area and Local Mental Health and Wellbeing Services, as well as alcohol and other drug services, to deliver integrated care.