Changing lives: using peer support to promote access to services for family members affected by someone else’s drug or alcohol use.

Contents: Introduction p.03 The need: the evidence p.04 What we did: project design p.07 What we achieved p.08 The Whole Family Recovery Project: what we learned p.15 Key learning: the challenges p.19 Family Recovery Champions: our stories p.21 We designed a project model which built on our experience at Adfam, which indicates that family support should include: • One-to-one practitioner support: listening, signposting and advice • Information: on drugs and alcohol, self-care, communication, boundaries, keeping safe, enabling and other important topics • Peer support: often, but not exclusively, delivered in a group setting. Adfam believes that the key characteristics of family support are: • Recognising the need to support family members in their own right, and not simply as a source of ‘recovery capital’ for those who use substances • Inculcating a warm, supportive, ‘client-centred’ ethos which is responsive to individual circumstances (rather than adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach) • Enabling the close involvement of family members in service design