AFINet is a free-to-join Network, providing a platform which:
AFINet Membership (free) is by application: www.afinetwork.info/members/apply-for-membership
The AFINet Webinars generally are monthly, and cover a range of topics related to Addiction and the Family. The programme for 2021 is below. Participation in each webinar is free, but to join, you MUST register beforehand. For each Webinar that you are interested in, please register in the few days before it starts, via webropol.com/s/afinetwebinar. Below the programme you can find a video recording of each Webinar that has been presented so far, along with the PowerPoint slides for that Webinar.
Future Webinars
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”. [To view this Webinar, see below.] 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 world-wide.
Evidence and Implementation of family-based interventions in the addiction field
Dr Gallus Bischof presented AFINet’s second Webinar on “Evidence and Implementation of family-based interventions in the addiction field”. [To view this Webinar and the PowerPoint Slides, see below.] Dr Bischof described and reported the results of a systematic review on the evidence of interventions for AFMs and reported the results of a survey of practitioners in Germany. The implications for further research and service improvement were discussed.
‘Fragile Childhood’: Help for the children of problem drinkers in Finland
Minna Ilva, the Project Manager for the Fragile Childhood programme in Finland, presented AFINet’s third Webinar on “‘Fragile Childhood’: Help for the children of problem drinkers in Finland”. [To view this Webinar and the PowerPoint Slides, see below.] The Fragile Childhood programme has been running in Finland since 1986. It offers help to young and adults who suffer from the adverse effects of parental alcohol use. Ms Ilva described the history and the funding of this programme and then went on to outline its’ current projects. She ended by discussing the needs to improve research and evaluation in this area. The discussion raised many areas where organisations in other countries could learn, and possibly replicate in their own countries.
We have just discovered that the AFINet Membership application form has not been working for the l... Read more
AFINet is a free-to-join Network, providing a platform which: brings together researchers, poli... Read more
Notice of Annual General Meeting (AGM) Preceded by a Webinar about Family Members Affecte... Read more
Family Drug Support in New Zealand are using the 5-Step Method remotely, holding videoconferencing... Read more
A new report (“Medications for Opioid Use Disorder”) has been put onto the website under Country Rep... Read more
The next AFINet Newsletter is due to come out at the end of June, and there is a call to all members... Read more
Welcome to the 10th issue of the AFINet newsletter! As you may recall, we have adjusted the format o... Read more
AFINet Trustee Richard Velleman has added a list of AFINet-related scientific papers published from ... Read more
Conference Programme and Pack AFINET CONFERENCE PROGRAMME AFINET ABSTRACTS A... Read more
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
We have just discovered that the AFINet Membership application form has not been working for the last 6 months, due to a technical error. While it has been fixed now, all applications since May have been lost (we had assumed that the lack of applications was due to Covid!).
We are very sorry for this. If you have applied for membership and have not received a response, we would kindly ask you to re-complete and re-submit the form (to be found here: www.afinetwork.info/members/apply-for-membership). If you know of any colleagues or friends who have tried to join AFINet over this period, it would be very helpful if you could forward this information to them, and encourage them to re-apply.
The AFINet Trustees