As part of the Florey Institute’s 2025 Public Lecture Series, Turning Point’s Clinical Director A/Prof Shalini Arunogiri presented this week as part of a discussion on “Women’s mental health: Exploring the intersection of stress and addiction”.

She was joined by neuroscientist Dr Leigh Walker, Deputy Lead of Mental Health Research at the Florey, and journalist and author of Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment, Jenny Valentish.

The Hon. Ingrid Stitt, Minister for Mental Health, opened the event with an insightful speech highlighting the importance of treatment and research into women’s mental health, and the Victorian government’s commitment to reform in addiction, mental health and women’s health.

Jenny Valentish provided a brilliant overview of key issues in women’s mental health from a lived experience perspective. Her reflections are summarised in this substack, with particular insights into the gaps in treatment and research.

Both A/Prof Arunogiri and Dr Walker expanded on these insights, discussing emerging discoveries from neuroscience research and key implementation challenges and opportunities in treatment.

“Women face a disproportionate burden of addiction-related social risk factors,” said A/Prof Arunogiri. “They’re more likely to experience childhood trauma, including sexual abuse. In adulthood, they are overwhelmingly more likely to be affected by intimate partner violence than men. This highlights the need for women’s specific treatment approaches, and implementation of evidence-based treatment so this is accessible to all women.”

A/Prof Arunogiri also highlighted the complex challenges women face during pregnancy and parenting, including grief, loss, guilt and shame, especially in interactions with the child protection system.

Watch the recording of the event here.

Turning Point is committed to improving outcomes for women living with addiction by integrating lived experience into treatment design and delivery.

Key programs include:

The COPE program: A trauma-focused integrated psychological treatment program for women with PTSD and co-occurring addiction.

The Ready2Change program: Flexible telephone-based counselling, with after-hours appointments for individuals who work or have parenting commitments.

The AOD Pathways program: A Victorian statewide navigation service helping individuals and families access the right addiction treatment and support.

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