In Their Own Right: Family Members Affected by Alcohol and other Drug Misuse or Gambling

AFINet’s first Webinar was given by Professor Richard Velleman on 20th October 2020. The topic of this Webinar was “In Their Own Right: Family Members Affected by Alcohol and other Drug Misuse or Gambling”.

Professor Velleman examined the evidence-base showing that family members of people with alcohol or other drug or gambling problem are often badly affected by their relative’s problems. He then showed how this evidence led to the creation of the ‘Stress-Strain-Coping-Support’ [SSCS] Model - a useful model for understanding the impact that other people’s addiction problems have on Affected Family Members.

Following this, he outlined the ‘5-Step Method’, one evidence-based method to help these Affected Family Members which emerged from the SSCS Model, and described the effects that this intervention is having on both Affected Family Members and on practitioners who deliver the intervention, before going on to describe how it is being implemented in various countries worldwide.