Complex Needs Conference 2026 – Call for Abstracts
The Australian Community Support Organisation (ACSO) and ermha365 (Mental Health Disability Complex Services), are proud to be hosting the Complex Needs Conference 2026 (funded by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing) on Wednesday 30 - Friday 2 October 2026 at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Welcome and event summary
We invite practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and individuals with lived experience to submit abstracts for the Complex Needs Conference 2026.
Building on the success of our 2025 theme, "Making it Work," this year we shift our focus toward the architecture of support. While last year was about overcoming barriers, “Bridging Systems” is about designing integrated, responsive, and safer pathways for adults and young people navigating the highest levels of complexity.
We are looking for submissions that explore how we can connect the dots between mental health, justice, housing, and disability services to ensure no one falls through the cracks of a fragmented system.
Together, we can drive better practices for adults and young people experiencing:
- Mental health challenges and Trauma
- Harmful substance use
- Behaviours of concern (risk to self or others)
- Justice involvement and child protection transitions
- Chronic homelessness and housing instability
- Cognitive and physical disability
This conference was inspired by the impactful efforts of the Assertive Outreach and Support Service (AOS) pilot program, a collaboration funded by the Victorian Government’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) and delivered by ACSO and ermha365. AOS is an innovative response to breaking down barriers that often prevent people with complex needs from accessing essential services.
Abstracts closing date:
Tuesday 28 April 2026
Abstract Themes & Streams
We are seeking abstracts that provide practical, evidence-based, or experience-led insights into how we can build a more unified service ecosystem.
Please read the information below (by clicking the + symbol to the right) to see which theme is most suitable for your presentation.
Practice Stream
Integrated Practice: Improving collaboration, safety, and systems navigation
This stream is designed for those in frontline and program-led roles who turn policy into practice. We are looking for abstracts that showcase the reality of working across multiple systems to support people with complex needs. Beyond just warm referrals, how do we build truly integrated responses? Submissions should highlight practical tools, shared risk frameworks and navigation strategies that enhance practitioner safety, improve client outcomes, and simplify the journey for those with diverse needs.
Key Topics:
- Advanced system navigation strategies
- Balancing clinical care with community safety
- Cross-sector risk management and safety protocols
- Collaborative case conferencing models
- Trauma-informed practice in high-pressure environments
- Innovative use of technology for service continuity
Research and Program Showcase
Breaking the Cycle: Evidence-informed solutions for managing risk and service challenges
How do we stop the revolving door? This stream invites researchers and program evaluators to share data-driven insights into breaking systemic cycles of crisis. We are seeking submissions that address the wicked problems of the sector: chronic homelessness, justice involvement, and long-term substance use.
Key Topics:
- Longitudinal research on complex service users
- Working with over-represented cohorts
- Evaluating the impact of integrated responses
- Predictive modelling for risk and intervention
- Workforce resilience and sustainability research
- Harm reduction vs. community safety
- Scalable pilot programs and their outcomes
- Successful partnerships and program outcomes
Lived Experience
Wisdom in Practice: Lived experience shaping better services
Those who have navigated the system are experts on where the bridges need to be built. This stream moves beyond storytelling to focus on influence and co-design. We invite abstracts from people with lived and living experience (and their supporters) that demonstrate how their wisdom is actively improving service design and delivery.
Key Topics:
- Co-designing integrated service pathways
- The role of Peer Workers in systems navigation
- Moving from consultation to leadership
- Systemic advocacy: Changing the rules from the inside
- Cultural wisdom and intersectional approaches to care
- Personal insights into overcoming system fatigue
Youth Foundations
Bridging the Transitions: Responsive systems for young people
This stream focuses on the unique developmental and systemic needs of young people (up to 25 years) experiencing intersecting and complex needs. We are seeking abstracts that explore how services can better respond during the critical transition between youth and adult systems, and how youth-focused models can be strengthened to prevent long-term system entrenchment. We welcome submissions that demonstrate how integrated, developmentally responsive care can be tailored to young people navigating multiple systems, including justice, out-of-home care, mental health, disability, and alcohol and other drug services.
Key Topics:
- Bridge the divide between youth and adult service systems
- Prevent chronic crisis through integrated early intervention responses
- Embedding youth voice and lived experience in system design and decision-making
- Cultural continuity, self-determination and culturally safe systems
- Supporting neurodiversity, disability and mental health within mainstream services
- Vocational, educational, and employment pathways for young people with complex needs
- Working with high-risk or violent behaviours without service exclusion
Abstract guidelines
All abstracts must be submitted by completing the below form before the closing date, Tuesday 28 April 2026 to be included in the reviewing process.
Dates and deadlines:
- Call for Abstracts Opens: 24 March 2026
- Abstracts Submission Deadline: 28 April 2026
- Notification of Abstracts to Authors: 26 May 2026
- Presenter Registration Deadline: 31 July 2026
Please email isabella@alignmentevents.com.au should you have any questions in relation to this event. We look forward to receiving your submission soon.
Abstract submission form
Terms and conditions
- Only abstracts submitted in English will be reviewed.
- Abstracts will be original work and must be submitted using the online form, by the presenting author.
- Submissions must include a biography of the presenter of up to 150 words.
- All abbreviations must be spelled out on first use.
- Abstracts should be thoroughly checked for correct spelling and grammar.
- Abstracts must be submitted by Tuesday 28 April 2026 for consideration by the Conference Organising Committee. Authors will be notified of provisional acceptance of abstracts by late May 2026.
- To be formally accepted, abstract authors must be registered and paid to attend the Conference by 21 August 2026.
- If successful, PowerPoint presentations must be provided in their final format ready for presenting one week prior to the conference
- If successful, the Organising Committee reserve the right to display and distribute the successful PowerPoint presentation post conference as a PDF document