The AddictionZ Conference returns to the Gold Coast this week, bringing together over 250 professionals, advocates and researchers working across addiction, mental health and behavioural health sectors.

Running from 13-14 May, the two-day event hosted by the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association will feature more than 30 sessions focused on prevention, trauma, treatment, and recovery.

Speakers include Dr Inez Fainga'a-Manu Sione from Village Connect, alongside experts such as Professor Nicki Dowling, Commissioner Ivan Frkovic, Dr Michael Winlo, and Professor Adam Bourne.

The conference highlights lived experience and culturally informed practice, with a focus on collaborative, cross-sector responses.

Dr Fainga'a-Manu Sione is the Community Research Fellow at Village Connect, a Pasifika holistic health hub in Logan.

The centre was created after several Pasifika mothers lost babies to gestational diabetes, prompting a grassroots response.

"Our Indigenous knowledges and ways of working, the solutions lie within, in terms of our communities and our cultural practices which are hundreds to thousands of years old," she told National Indigenous Times.

She notes western models of care often fail to connect with Pasifika communities, and culturally grounded approaches are key.

"A lot of our clinical systems are dominantly western ways of working, but they don't really resonate with our communities."

Dr Fainga'a-Manu Sione's presentation focuses on the Side by Side Project, a collaboration of five longstanding Pasifika groups delivering support without formal funding.

"These groups have been in the communities for a long time serving without funding," she said.

"We've secured a little bit of funding from Brisbane South PHN to pour into this work."

The project includes Pasifika-owned gyms, a men's group formed in response to suicides in Inala, a Tongan psychologist, and Village Connect, which also operates as a church and charity.

She said their work is shaped by intergenerational healing, spirituality, and a deep understanding of cultural context.

"We don't segregate each generation - it's intergenerational work," she said.

"If we don't work holistically, the divides continue."

The teams use culturally responsive models like the Fona Fale framework to engage families in non-clinical spaces.

Dr Fainga'a-Manu Sione said mainstream services remain difficult to access.

"The mental health system's broken," she said.

"The waitlists, the forms those are foreign ways of working for our people."

Her message to the sector is clear.

"Solutions lie within communities," she said.

"It's really about coming alongside communities and understanding what they're already doing well, finding the champions within communities and better supporting and resourcing what's on the ground."

She added that healing happens through trusted relationships, not institutions.

"With the right resourcing and support, the healing comes from within our community. Just resource us better."

Delegates can register to attend the AddictionZ Conference on the Gold Coast, held Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 May.

A 20% discount is available with the code Addiction20.