AFINet Oceania
AFINet Oceania (formerly the AOD Family Research and Practice Network) connects researchers and professionals working with families, friends and significant others affected by Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) use in the Oceania region. The Network aims to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among researchers and service providers. Membership is voluntary, and meetings are held every 6-8 weeks, offering a space for respectful open dialogue and connection.
Stay tuned for webinar, meeting updates, and videos!
Prof Anne-Marie Laslett from the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University
April 2026
In this seminar, Anne-Marie spoke about her studies of alcohol’s harm to others (AHTO) and how the impacts on others extend beyond harms to oneself from one’s own drinking. Drinking can affect individuals, families, communities and societies. Harms include serious health and social harms such as, injury, violence and child maltreatment, and a range of harms that affect amenity, relationships and finances. Although alcohol’s harm to others affects most people in some way, it is often gendered, and intersects with other inequalities.
In the presentation Anne-Marie summarised alcohol’s impacts on others nationally and globally, showcasing the multiple methodologies her team has used to report their findings. She presented the frameworks they have developed to better understand this harm and that influence policy and leverage improvement in response systems.
Biography:
Professor Anne-Marie Laslett is a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Having worked in public health on alcohol and drug epidemiology for over two decades, Anne-Marie is internationally renowned for her research on Alcohol’s Harm to Others. She is Associate Director of the Care Economy Research Institute, also at La Trobe University, a co-investigator and technical advisor to the World Health Organization/Thai Health International Collaborative Research Project on the Harm to Others from Drinking, Secretary of the Kettil Bruun Society for Epidemiological and Social Research on Alcohol and the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research.
Dr Heather Dalby from CICADA
November 2025
Heather is a social worker with the CICADA program (Care and Intervention for Children Affected by Drugs and Alcohol) at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network.
Heather talked a little about her professional journey, and why she believes family work can be important when supporting disadvantaged and/or ‘tricky’ adolescents. She shared some of the informal and formal interventions that are slowly being woven into the model of practice in a Drug and Alcohol treatment program for adolescents.
Clare Rushton, PhD candidate at University of Wollongong
June 2025
Presentation title: Supporting families affected by a loved one’s alcohol or other drug use.
In this presentation, Clare shared the findings from a series of studies that formed her thesis investigating wellbeing and help-seeking among family members affected by a loved one’s alcohol or other drug use. The presentation examined the effectiveness and accessibility of interventions to support families, described the characteristics of affected family members in Australia, and identified key predictors of accessing specialised support. Finally, the presentation explored families’ coping and resilience through a strengths-based lens.
Ros Mulholland and Helen Gillies from Al-Anon Family Groups
November 2024
The presentation included a PowerPoint presentation, results of Al-Anon’s recent membership Survey and some Frequently asked Questions for Professionals.
The PowerPoint presentation explained the origins of Al-Anon, what to expect from an Al-Anon Family Groups meeting, literature, and Alateen – the program for teenagers.
The results of the recent Membership survey were presented including some demographic and geographic information, how members heard about Al-Anon Family Groups, other support services they access, how often they come to Al-Anon meetings and preferred format of meetings attended, why they first joined and the outcomes of attending Al-Anon.
Finally, Frequently Asked Questions were addressed to help other professionals better understand how Al-Anon may benefit their clients.
Paige Webb, PhD candidate at the National Drug and Alcohol Centre, University of New South Wales
September 2025
Paige presented on her semi-structured qualitative interviews with family members of people who use methamphetamine across Australia, with a focus on influences on close interpersonal relationships. 19 family members from a range of family roles were recruited and data were analysed via thematic analysis. The 6 themes identified broadly cover: families’ initial reactions after discovering the drug use and their related grief; tensions and navigation of boundaries within the family; experiences of stigma and how it can hinder support seeking; benefits of engaging with support services. Overall, this study highlights how having a family member who uses methamphetamine can change relationship dynamics among family members and how these changes can have a ripple effect on family members’ work-life and broader social relationships.
Judy Avisar from Three Sides of the Coin.
July 2024
Three Sides of the Coin presented a recovery gamble video story of a woman’s journey with pokies addiction, followed by Q and A with the storyteller.
Three Sides of the Coin is a project of SHARC (Self Help Addiction Resource Centre) that uses theatrical story-telling with people who have experienced gambling harm, to creatively express their journeys into darkness and their process of healing and recovery. They have become passionate advocates for change, igniting conversations about the impact of gambling in our community, and its links to mental health, alcohol, drugs, and family violence, appealing for a Public Health perspective to this community problem.
Heidi Gray, PhD candidate at Charles Sturt University
May 2025
Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) is an evidence-based talking therapy which works with the family and friends of people struggling with substance use. CRAFT uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI) to teach family members more effective ways of interacting with their loved one and increasing family members’ own social and emotional well-being. Our study is providing online support to family members living in rural Australia through the delivery of the CRAFT program. The RCT is examining the impact of CRAFT on mental health and engagement of the person using AOD into treatment. Semi-structured interviews are seeking to understand the feasibility of CRAFT from participants’ and clinicians’ point of view.
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