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.