FASD Across All Systems: Why It Matters
Understanding the Intersection of Out of Home Care, Justice and Alcohol & Other Drug Services
Description:
Join AADC and NOFASD Australia for a webinar launching a new lived experience FASD resource.
This new resource features carers’ insights on navigating Out-of-Home Care, Justice and Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) service systems with practical learnings for professionals, and a live Q&A with lived experience and sector experts.
Date: Tuesday 29 September, 2026
Time: 1:00pm – 2:30PM AEST
Cost: Online – A link will be sent to you before the webinar
Who should attend: This webinar is relevant for professionals, practitioners and frontline workers across the Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD), Out-of-Home Care (OOHC), Justice, Child Protection, Mental Health, Family Services, Housing and Homelessness, Youth, and Community Services sectors, as well as anyone interested in strengthening support for children and young people with FASD and their families.
Registration: Click here for more information and to register
Non-Fatal Strangulation in the context of alcohol and drug use – Webinar
Supporting the AOD workforce to recognise, respond to and support people experiencing non-fatal strangulation
Dates:
Wednesday 7 October 1pm – 2.30pm
Delivery: Online – Al ink will be sent to your registered email address prior
Description: Non-fatal strangulation (NFS) is a serious form of family violence that can result in significant, sometimes invisible or delayed, health impacts. For people who use alcohol and other drugs, substance toxicity, withdrawal, altered perception, memory and cognitive impacts can make NFS more difficult to recognise and respond to. This online session will explore how AOD workers can recognise indicators of NFS, respond in a trauma- and violence-informed way, and support safe, person-led pathways to health and specialist services.
You will learn:
- Recognising signs, symptoms, invisible injuries and delayed effects of NFS
- How substance toxicity, withdrawal and cognitive impacts may obscure NFS
- Trauma- and violence-informed enquiry and assessment
- Risk assessment, documentation, referral and continuity of care
- Supporting people experiencing family violence within AOD settings
- Working across AOD, health and family violence systems
Presenters:
Dr JoAnn Parkin,
Fidelis Forensics
Acting Director, Department of Forensic Medicine, Gold Coast University Hospital
Jo is a forensic physician and Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Forensic Medicine at the RCPA, with 17 years’ frontline experience. As Acting Director at Gold Coast University Hospital, she has led integrated health and forensic care. Previously the medical lead for training and research at VIFM, she advanced awareness of NFS and continues to promote education, research and multidisciplinary practice.
Sheldon Fauth,
Uniting VT
Specialist Family Violence Advisor, Alcohol and Other Drugs | Sheldon Fauth is a Specialist Family Violence Advisor in AOD at Uniting. She is an intersectional feminist with expertise in the interrelationship between substance use and family violence. Her work strengthens recognition, assessment and management of family violence risk, including non-fatal strangulation, and supports coordinated, person-led responses across AOD, health and family violence systems.
Presented by VAADA, Fidelis Forensics and Uniting
Consumer Consensus on the Optimal Deliver of the Opioid Dependence Treatment Program
Description:
In this webinar, you will hear what people with lived-living experience of the Opioid Dependence Treatment Program (ODTP) have identified as priorities for optimal delivery of the program in Australia. The consumer consensus statement presented in this webinar was developed through consultation with AIVL member organisations and people across Australia who have direct experience of the ODTP.
Date: Wednesday 2 September
Time: 12:00pm – 1:30PM AEST
Cost: Online – A link will be sent to you before the webinar
Who should attend: This webinar is only available to staff who are working in a Victorian Department of Health (DH) funded AOD organisation.
Registration: Click here for more information and to register
Pharmacotherapy systems, mapping challenges and best practice: What We’ve Learned and What It Means for Opioid Treatment
Description:
This webinar provides an overview of emerging findings from recent research that has aimed to build a shared understanding of challenges and priorities in opioid dependence treatment. It brings together insights from clinicians, consumers, and service leaders to highlight barriers to access, workforce and service issues, and areas where further evidence and alignment are needed.
The session is designed to inform and prepare stakeholders for the National Consensus for Action Forum: A Roundtable on Australian Opioid Dependence Treatment in Canberra focused on consensus-building, advocacy, and practical action.
Target Audience
- Clinicians delivering opioid agonist treatment (OAT)
- Clinical directors, service managers, and governance leads
- Researchers and guideline developers engaged in opioid treatment
- Consumers (though specific webinars are planed that are targeted primarily for this audience)
Key Outputs/Outcomes
By the end of the webinar participants will:
- Shared understanding of challenges and priorities from a treatment system perspective
- Greater alignment across clinical and system stakeholders
- Documented points of convergence and uncertainty.
Relationship to the National Consensus for Action Roundtable
This webinar provides evidence informed context, ensuring that by September:
- Major challenges and priorities are already mapped
- Forum participants can focus on consensus statements, advocacy priorities, and action planning
- The research process actively strengthens sector advocacy rather than running parallel to it
Date: Tuesday, 25 August
Time: 1:00pm – 2:30PM AEST
Cost: Online – A link will be sent to you before the webinar
Who should attend: This webinar is only available to staff who are working in a Victorian Department of Health (DH) funded AOD organisation.
Registration: Click here for more information and to register
Setting the Scene: Reforming Australia’s ODTP – Key Evidence, Priorities and Unfinished Business
Description:
The ODTP National Consensus for Action Roundtable will be held on 7 September 2026 at Parliament House Canberra, where expert representatives including lived and living experience advocates, policy makers, clinicians, researchers and other key stakeholders will be joined by Australian Government Parliamentarians, bureaucrats and ministerial representatives to build and endorse a National Opioid Dependency Treatment (ODT) Program consensus statement. Our aim is that this document will outline critical, cross-jurisdictional ODT program principles that centre efficacy, equity and sustainability, and the associated actions required to implement meaningful healthcare and systems reform. This process is a crucial unified step towards an internationally accepted gold-standard for ODT in this country and a commitment to future healthcare innovation, that Australian communities should rightfully expect, and that clinical and policy experts agree is an imperative priority to deliver.
This webinar, the first in a series of three pre-roundtable events, will guide participants through a detailed overview of two key documents: the recently launched Harm Reduction Australia (HRA) Opioid Treatment Program Policy Brief and the PBS Post-Market Review of PBS ODTP Medicines Report to PBAC (March 2023). An overview of available ODTP medications, additional formulations and alternative approaches to ODT that have succeeded in other jurisdictions internationally, will also be explored. Informing the consensus building discussions that will take place at Parliament House in September, this webinar is intentionally informative and sets the groundwork for building meaningful consensus in the lead-up to the face‑to‑face Roundtable event. Providing a backdrop for policy and research perspectives in the Australian setting, we warmly invite webinar participants to take up the opportunity to participate by contributing questions, as well as to become familiar with what is possible in building our own successful future model for ODT.
Date: Tuesday, 11 August
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00PM AEST
Cost: Online – A link will be sent to you before the webinar
Who should attend: This webinar is only available to staff who are working in a Victorian Department of Health (DH) funded AOD organisation.
Registration: Click here for more information and to register
**This training is now full**
1-day workshop:
Date: 23rd September 2026
Time: 10am – 4:30pm
Online: a link will be sent to you prior to the workshop date
Learning outcomes
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:
- Establish the culture of the group and safety within the group space.
- Define content and process and apply both with balance between the two.
- Identify common challenges that present in the delivery of group programs and apply strategies for managing these.
- Understand how to work in a variety of group formats.
- Apply skills and strategies for attending to responsivity in groupwork.
- Apply skills for providing the group with a sense of closure at the end of a group program.
Eligibility Criteria
This training is open to people working in AOD-specific roles in publicly funded services (i.e. AOD, mental health locals).
Who is not eligible?
Students on placement or internships, workers outside of Victoria, workers not in an AOD-specific role.
Register
Registrations open 12th August
Terms & Conditions
If you cannot attend, cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.
Registration: This training is full
When the Prescription Becomes the Problem: Assessing and Managing Dependence on Benzodiazepines, Opioid Analgesics and other medications
This is a 45 minute Turning Point Connect & Learn webinar. To attend the webinar, click the link below to register.
Description: This presentation will look at how concurrent alcohol use changes risk, presentation and overdose potential, and what clinicians need to watch for in day-to-day assessment and management.
Dr Basanth Kenchaiah is a general adult and addiction psychiatrist with a particular interest in prescription medication dependence and managing inappropriate polypharmacy. He works part time at GV Health and St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, in addition to private practice at Delmont Private Hospital. He sits on the executive committee of the Australian Deprescribing Network and was until recently Chair of the Subcommittee for Advanced Training in Addiction Psychiatry, RANZCP.
Date: Tuesday,29 September
Time: 1:00pm – 1:45PM
Cost: Online – A link will be sent to you before the webinar
Who should attend: This webinar is only available to staff who are working in a Victorian Department of Health (DH) funded AOD organisation.
Registration: Click here to register
**Workshop Full**
Through an exploration of the unique intersection between suicide risk and substance use, this workshop will equip participants with practical, evidence-informed approaches to identify risk, engage in meaningful conversations, and strengthen suicide prevention practice within AOD settings.
workshop objectives:
- Understand the unique intersection between alcohol and other drug use and suicide, including current evidence, trends and contextual factors.
- Recognise and respond to indicators of suicide risk in AOD settings, building confidence in conversations about suicide and safety.
- Apply practical suicide prevention strategies within everyday AOD practice, including risk management, protective factors and pathways to support.
Dom Pezzutto has worked across suicide prevention, mental health and AOD services in frontline, leadership and education roles. She has contributed to suicide prevention service reform, led workforce development initiatives supporting suicide prevention services across Australia, and has experience spanning crisis intervention, suicide bereavement support, service design, policy development and sector education. Drawing on experience across multiple service settings, Dom brings a unique perspective on the intersection of suicide prevention and AOD practice, helping workers recognise how culture, context, connection and everyday interactions can act as powerful suicide prevention strategies, even when suicide prevention is not the primary focus of the work.
Who should attend? Victorian Department Health funded AOD workers new to their role and/or those looking to refresh and update existing knowledge.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This workshop is only available to staff who are working in a Victorian Department of Health (DH) funded AOD organisation in an AOD role.
Date: Monday November 9, 2026
Time: 9:30am – 4:30pm
Venue: Turning Point, Level 1, Training Rooms – 110 Church St, Richmond 3121
Cost: Free (This workshop is only available to staff who are working in a Victorian Department of Health (DH) funded AOD organisation.)
NB: If you register and do not attend, your organisation/manager will receive a fee
