Effectiveness Bank web site Collection
Supported by  Alcohol Research UK web site   Society for the Study of Addiction web site
The Alcohol and Families collection

Constructed for Alcohol Awareness Week 2017 on the theme of ‘Alcohol and Families’, this collection embraces two major roles for the families of problem drinkers – as recipients of support and therapy to promote their own welfare, and as therapeutic agents engaged in promoting the drinker’s welfare through family therapy or less formal involvement in treatment.

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Highlights from the collection
Sample entries below. Click button above to see the whole collection.

Focus on the (whole) family
With evidence that supporting the relatives of people affected by substance use can bring huge benefits to the whole family, this hot topic looks at what family-focused interventions are out there, and what issues beyond alcohol and drugs might shape the family dynamic.

REVISED Impact of interventions with ‘challenging’ families uncertain
Family interventions were at the heart of the UK government’s ambition to ‘turn around’ the lives of 120,000 troubled families in England. Though falls in the number experiencing drink and drug problems were observed, the featured study could not show whether this was due to the interventions, and a report on a successor programme found no significant impacts.

Lasting relief for partners and parents coping with addiction in the family
In England a brief primary care counselling programme for family members living with a relative with substance use problems unusually aims primarily to improve their lives rather than that of the substance user. Even a year later it seems to have succeeded, and the improvements accumulated rather than faded.

Can it ever be safe to leave children with dependent drinkers?
A question addressed in our commentary on one the 25 cells of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. Is it simply too risky to leave their children with the most severely affected of these parents, even if the parents are in treatment, and even if they appear to have successfully completed it?


The Drug and Alcohol Findings Effectiveness Bank offers a free mailing list service updating subscribers to UK-relevant evaluations of drug/alcohol interventions. Findings is supported by Alcohol Research UK and the Society for the Study of Addiction and advised by the National Addiction Centre.