Australia’s first self-funded Complex Needs Clinical Service designed specifically for Employment Services participants opens tomorrow in Sunshine, marking a major milestone for long-term unemployed people navigating the increasingly complex Centrelink system.

The SAMMs Complex Needs Clinic is a first-of-its-kind clinical service built for people facing entrenched, high-risk and long-term barriers including mental health challenges, addiction, criminal justice involvement, disability, chronic illness, trauma and severe social instability.

Located at 1/5 Devonshire Road, Sunshine, the clinic launches in the same community where Sharon Mamo, CEO of Creating New Pathways and founder of the SAMMs model, once faced the very barriers she now specialises in addressing. For Ms Mamo, this opening is both a full-circle moment and a turning point in how complex unemployment is understood and supported in Victoria.

Built by lived experience, proven through clinical design

Ms Mamo and her daughter, Montana Nicoloutsopoulos, a Mental Health Social Worker and 2025 Australian Social Worker of the Year nominee, self-funded the research, development and build of the SAMMs model. Their mission was to create a clinical service that acts quickly, intelligently and compassionately for people repeatedly failed by overstretched systems and reduced to tick-box compliance.

These are individuals who often feel isolated, misunderstood and unable to advocate for themselves. Many struggle to meet constantly shifting Centrelink requirements without the support, regulatory capacity or clinical scaffolding needed to understand what is expected of them. SAMMs responds with stability first, then targeted capacity-building.

‘We’ve been through it,’ Ms Mamo said.

‘Sunshine is where I was a job provider client. Long-term unemployed, frightened, angry, unwell and unsure how to survive.’

‘Coming back here as the founder of a clinical model is a full-circle moment I never planned. It evolved from the work and the people who needed something better.’

Self-funded because crisis cannot wait

Every component of SAMMs has been self-funded, including the clinical framework, neuroscience integration, manualisation, intervention design, testing, training, website, travel and outreach. The model was built without government grants or tenders.

‘People with complex needs cannot wait for tenders, reforms or budget announcements,’ Ms Mamo said.

‘Around 175,000 unemployed Australians have been out of work for five years or more. They are passed from provider to provider and mapped onto plans that do not change their lives.’

‘We work in crisis, similar to ambulance or police responders, just without the badge. Not yet, anyway.’

The cost of inaction

SAMMs formally cautioned Federal Government agencies in September and October that the cost of inaction on complex unemployment is already intensifying pressure on health, justice and community systems.

Each year, thousands of people with untreated trauma, addiction, neurodevelopmental conditions and chronic illness cycle through police callouts, emergency department presentations, court matters, homelessness services and suspended Centrelink payments. The financial waste is significant. The human toll is far greater.

‘When governments don’t act, communities pay, and so do frontline workers,’ Ms Mamo said.

‘The cost of doing nothing is written across emergency departments, court lists and homelessness services.’

‘We built this model because the alternative was watching another generation drown in the same gaps.’

A model refined through generational lived experience and clinical expertise

Co-developer Montana Nicoloutsopoulos grew up in the region, witnessing her mother’s struggle and recovery. She led the manualisation and structural development of the model, ensuring clinical precision and fidelity.

‘SAMMs integrates evidence-based practice with the lived reality of clients like Sharon,’ Ms Nicoloutsopoulos said.

‘Sharon taught me that the people we work with are precious cargo.’

The model has earned international recognition, including a Stevie Award for Social Impact, and was described by the 2025 Stevie Awards as gutsy and the first of its kind.

Why Sunshine

Brimbank records some of the highest rates in Victoria for long-term unemployment, addiction and dual diagnosis, homelessness risk, justice involvement, financial stress, family violence, intergenerational trauma, acute mental health presentations and complex behavioural challenges.

SAMMs was designed specifically for these realities, delivering stabilisation, regulation, outreach, safety planning, capacity-building and coordinated clinical care embedded within Employment Services.

EVENT DETAILS. MEDIA INVITATION

SAMMs Complex Needs Clinic Opening

Location: 1/5 Devonshire Road, Sunshine

Date: Tuesday 9 December 2025

Time: 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Speeches: From 12:30 pm

Opportunities: Photography, interviews, client-centred reform narrative

Presentations

• Seeing the System Clearly: Gaps, Complexity and the Seeds of SAMMs

  Stacey Dutschke, SYC Chief Operating Officer

• 15 Years of Creating New Pathways: From Concept to Sector Catalyst

  Montana Nicoloutsopoulos, CNP Programs and Clinical Services Director

• SAMMs: The Journey, The Foundations, Interventions and the Complex Needs Clinician Role

  Sharon Mamo, CNP CEO and Founder

• A Clinician’s Lens: Complexity, Impact and Unexpected Truths

  Jodie Keenan, SAMMs Complex Needs Clinician

• Partnering with SAMMs: Outcomes, Stories and Impact

  WISE Employment Representative

• Official Opening Ceremony

  Brimbank Councillor / Deputy Mayor (2025)