Madeleine Harradence and Megan McKechnie
ANMF (Vic Branch) Assistant Secretary Madeleine Harradence and Alfred Health’s Senior Addictions Nurse Practitioner Megan McKechnie will be presenting on the topic of alcohol and other drug (AOD) nurse-led models of care at the upcoming Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA) 2025 conference.
Along with Alfred Health’s Senior Addictions Nurse Practitioner Megan McKechnie, Maddy will focus on the growing speciality of AOD nursing and the potential to drive innovation through nurse-led models of care.
The presentation will discuss why we don’t have to re-invent the wheel, with nurses well placed within various residential and non-residential settings to care for some of our most marginalised patients through the use of truly patient-centred models of care and from a lens that is often not well understood by other arms of healthcare.
Maddy and Megan will also look at how projects like the ANMF/Turning Point AOD training and scholarship program attracts, supports and retains this critical nursing workforce.
VAADA Conference 2025: From challenges to solutions – responding to a changing world
VAADA hold their conference very two years. In 2025, the theme addresses how a rapidly changing world intersects with the AOD sector, specifically the challenges it brings – including budget constraints and rising debt, vaping, climate change, gaming addiction, misinformation, artificial intelligence (AI), novel synthetic drugs, geopolitical instability and post-COVID shifts in how we live and work.
This year’s conference is on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 February at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, 123 Collins Street.
