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Date: Wednesday 18th March 2026: 09.00 UK; 19.00 Queensland; 20.00 Sydney

Title: The Family and Friend Support Programs: Development and Pilot Testing of a Web-Based Well-Being and Resilience Intervention for Family Members and Friends Supporting a Loved One Using Alcohol or Other Drugs
Presenters:

  • Steph Kershaw, PhD, Research Fellow & Project Lead for Cracks in the Ice, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance, University of Sydney

  • Dara Sampson, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle

  • Jessica Deng, MClinPsych, Research Assistant, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance, University of Sydney

Chair: Dr. Julie Perrin, Private Practice and Charles Sturt University

Description: Despite the well-documented psychosocial challenges faced by family members and friends supporting a loved one using alcohol or other drugs (AOD), few mental health and well-being interventions are tailored to their needs. To address this gap, the Family and Friend Support Program (FFSP) was co-designed in 2019 with affected family members and friends (AFFMs).

FFSP is a world-first, evidence-based, web-based intervention developed using the Stress-Strain-Coping-Support Model and the 5-Step Method. Pilot testing with 131 AFFMs demonstrated that FFSP is both feasible and acceptable, and that it has the potential to address a critical unmet need for family-focused AOD support.

This webinar provided an overview of the co-development process, shared results from the pilot testing, and discussed implications for future service development and research. A wide-ranging discussion looked at the programme’s accessibility outside of Australia, and its possible translation into other languages (people from all of Germany, Spain and Cameroon were especially enthusiastic).