2025 AFINet Conference
May 21–23, 2025 – Quebec City, Canada
The AFINet International Conference 2025 was held in the historic and beautiful Quebec City. This three-day event brought together global researchers, practitioners, family members, and individuals with lived experience to explore the role of families in addiction recovery and mental health support.
With a dynamic program of keynote speakers, workshops, symposiums, and panels, the conference focused on innovative approaches to supporting families affected by substance use and gambling. It offered opportunities to connect with professionals from around the world and highlighted essential research and real-world practice.
Stay tuned – recordings of presentations, speaker slides, and related research materials from the AFINet International Conference 2025 will be made available here shortly. Please check back soon to access the resources shared during the event.
Download the Full Conference Program (PDF)
For detailed session information, times, speaker names, and venue breakdowns, download the full program below:
Location
The conference was held at Université Laval in Quebec City, with sessions hosted in multiple rooms including the Grand Salon and Hydro-Québec rooms.
Keynote Speakers
- Jim Orford, Ph.D. – Opening Remarks
- Sharon Dawe, Ph.D. – Featured Address
- Myriam Laventure, Ph.D. – Keynote Session
- Pauline Stewart, Ph.D. – Closing Keynote
For full details on the 2025 Conference in Quebec, please visit the organiser’s website.
‘Who Cares’ is a powerful poem about Affected Family Members, written by Christine Hollywood, a poet, freelance writer and teacher who lives in Sussex, England. You can read the poem here.
Christine’s award-winning poetry collection, Fragile Islands, giving voice to the hidden experience of girls, women and mothers, was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2024. After discussion with Jim Orford, she wrote Who Cares to reflect the neglect and stigma so often experienced by family members closely associated with their loved ones’ struggles with addiction.
With her permission Jim recited the poem in his opening presentation at the AFINet annual conference in Quebec in May, where he reports that the poem was very well received and appreciated. Christine has kindly given her permission for Who Cares to appear on the AFINet website.
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