I hold a B.Sc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Nigeria; an M.Sc (Clinical Psychology) from the University of Benin and more recently a PhD in Psychology from the University of Birmingham. I have held positions in tertiary institutions (both as a senior lecturer and as a researcher), and several non-governmental organisations in three different countries. My interest in alcohol/drug research led to my working towards and becoming the Deputy Director at the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA). Here we raised awareness of the alcohol and drug situation in the country; helping interested groups and governments to develop a response. I joined the Alcohol, Drugs and the Family Research Group in 2004 and played a leading role in the development of a web-based self-help resource for family members who were affected by someone else’s drinking.
My first international work was as the country director for Nigerian in the Gender, Alcohol and Culture: an International Research (GENACIS). This study currently involves more than 36 different countries. It is a household survey examining the situational and familial context of an individual’s drinking/drug use as well as its health, social, life style and related experiences. I also took part in a later collaborative effort that emerge from this work; it involved collection of qualitative data on ‘Intimate partner violence and the role of alcohol in 8 different countries. More recent is the international research on ‘Harm to Others’ research where I have been appointed as a consultant to the Nigerian arm of this project.
I am currently collaborating with researchers in Nigeria and Uganda gathering preliminary data on experience of people living with an alcohol or drug-misusing relative. This will help expand our knowledge of the applicability of the ADF model of understanding of alcohol and drug use within the family, and the effectiveness of the 5-Step Method in supporting concerned family members within these cultures.
AFINet member Urvita Bhatia presents Poster and gives Twitter interview at the Wellcome Trust / Depa... Read more
AFINet members Anil Rane, Urvita Bhatia, Jim Orford, Richard Velleman and Abhijit Nadkarni recently ... Read more
Matua Raki (the national addiction workforce development centre in New Zealand) has been working clo... Read more
As part of the ‘Checkmate’ programme (reported elsewhere in this newsletter) , Gill and Richard Vell... Read more
Great to see an article in support of our 5-Step intervention for family members in the Feb '17 issu... Read more
Save the Date! On 1st & 2nd November 2016, Richard and Gill Velleman will be running a 2-day tr... Read more
I have just read two articles which come from countries which, as far as I know, have not produced ... Read more
Another paper from this recently completed 3 year study in the UK, which focuses on a subset of in... Read more
A paper outlining the main findings from a recently completed UK study in to bereavement through... Read more
AFINet 1st AGM Birmingham Wednesday July 15th 2015 Winterbourne Gardens, Edgbaston Park Road, B... Read more
In June 2015 AFINet members, Lorna Templeton and Richard Velleman, attended the final event of a m... Read more
Following the delivery by Richard Velleman and Gracemary Leung of a 2-day 5-Step Method training i... Read more
The following papers may be of interest to AFINet members. They report findings from a two year lo... Read more
Brazilian AFINet colleagues, Helen Sakiyama et al. have had a paper describing their research in Sao... Read more
Iran’s first research about family members affected by addiction has been published! In fact we thin... Read more
“How do I tell my children about what my mum's like?” Conflict and dilemma in experiences of adult... Read more
This multi-site randomised controlled trial aims to test the feasibility of implementing and evalua... Read more
The short questionnaire for family members (affected by addiction) – the SQFM(AA) – is starting to ... Read more
This is the first AFINet Newsletter so a big welcome to all AFINet members and to others of you wh... Read more
A team at the Centre for Child and Youth Research at Brunel University, London, led by Professor Jud... Read more
Although this interesting qualitative study by Maria Fotopoulou, of the School of Social and Politic... Read more
Is a child, harmed by the mother’s drinking during pregnancy, entitled to compensation, and what are... Read more
The first phase of this UK 3 year study (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council) has bee... Read more
A major 4 year project is underway in Northern Ireland. Building on previous work (further informati... Read more
Richard Velleman, a founder AFINet member, is travelling to Hong Kong in April to co-run (with Grace... Read more
Jan Ligon, PhD, LCSW Georgia State University The abuse of alcohol and other drugs in the older adu... Read more
During November 2013 Alex Copello was invited to give one of the keynote addresses at the Australa... Read more
This work builds on the first phase of UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) family research, with a... Read more
Jim Orford recently made two presentations about gambling and family members at the Third Internat... Read more
"1 in 3 people report having heavy drinkers in their lives" and "1 in 2 people report being harmed... Read more
Two projects have been completed in Northern Ireland with our AFINet partners to develop and evaluat... Read more
Richard Velleman recently gave a talk about the effects that substance misusing parents have on chi... Read more
Members of the UK Alcohol, Drugs and the Family research and practice group convened a half-day prog... Read more
References on Risk and Resilience: The impact of substance misusing parents on their child... Read more
An International workshop for collaborators and potential collaborators involved in research and ac... Read more
One member of the UK ADF Group (Lorna) has co-authored a major report, Silent Voices, into parental ... Read more
Major project underway to investigate the experiences and needs of family members and significant ot... Read more
Risk and Resilience: The Impact of Substance Misusing Parents on children Presentation at the LSCB/... Read more
Betting Their Lives: The Close Relations of Problem Gamblers, by Lorne Tepperman, Don Mills, Ontari... Read more
New Article on Family Members Affected by Addiction in a Major Health Science Journal Highlight... Read more