Paul Vallance

Lives Lived Well

Since the 1970s, Lives Lived Well has provided treatment and support to people whose lives are impacted by alcohol and other drugs. We have come a long way from the early days of shaking tins at traffic lights to raise money to keep going. In fact, we have tripled in size over the past few years, meaning we now can deliver more services to more people in more places. Through planned growth, service diversification and friendly mergers, our team is now over 500 staff in 50+ locations across Queensland and New South Wales with AOD services as diverse as the communities we work in. We now also support people with mental health and gambling concerns and those transitioning from correctional centres. You might have heard of headspace? We are the lead agency for headspace on the Gold Coast and Upper Coomera. We also deliver NewAccess – a low-intensity mental health program developed by Beyond Blue across South West and Western Queensland. Last year, we started our first social enterprise. We seek out evidence in treatment approaches. We partner with The University of Queensland to conduct leading-edge research in AOD treatment. We want to know that what we do works – that people are supported to make real changes in their lives. And that goes to the heart of our reason for being – We believe that with the right support people can change their lives.