I took a first degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex, and then trained in clinical psychology and obtained my PhD at the University of Exeter before moving to Bath where I worked in a number of related positions within both the University of Bath and the National Health Service mental health services. I have researched and written extensively about alcohol and drug problems, with a special interest on the impact of addiction problems on the family and the development of methods for helping and supporting affected family members. With colleagues in the Alcohol, Drugs and the Family (ADF) Research Group UK I have helped pioneer the development of the Stress-Strain-Coping-Support model of understanding the impact of addiction problems on families; the 5-Step Method to help affected family members in their own right; and the ideas of protection and resilience in children affected by family substance misuse problems. I am a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
My international work in relation to addiction and families began with my collaboration, with Jim Orford and others in the ADF Group, with Guillermina Natera and colleagues at the Mexican Institute of Psychiatry. This continued with our work with the Living with Alcohol Program in the Northern Territory, Australia in the 1990s and early 2000s, and then with work with Caterina Arcidiacono in Naples, Italy, both in looking at the impact of addiction in families in Italy and in utilising the 5-Step Method there. At the same time (the late 1990s and early 2000s) I became involved with setting up and developing ENCARE (http://www.encare.info), an EU-wide network concerned with developing resources to assist professionals across the EU to improve the help they offer to children in families affected by substance misuse. More recently this work has involved work with colleagues in several other countries including Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, Nigeria and South Africa. I am also a Senior Research Consultant in India [with the Sangath Community Health NGO, Goa, India - http://www.sangath.com] where I am developing and researching the use of community lay health workers to deliver psychological interventions to people with severe depression or serious alcohol problems; a member of the 15-strong Scientific Committee for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) (http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/about/sc) - this is the only pan-EU expert scientific committee related to substance misuse, and is appointed to via major competition; and a member of the EU project ‘Minimum Quality Standards in Drug Demand Reduction - EQUS’ which has recently reported. Along with work in England, the work in Mexico and Australia resulted in the book, Coping with Alcohol and Drug Problems.
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