Overview

BreakThrough: Families Understanding Addiction has been delivering education and support to families, friends and partners of people who use AOD since 2015, and in 2021, trialled an online fortnightly support group as an adjunct to its weekly education session.

This presentation will showcase the BreakThrough program and online support group, and describe:

• the process of developing and delivering an online support group to meet the needs of family members
• the evaluation process and key findings in terms of the effectiveness of BreakThrough in improving family members’ skills and confidence in coping and responding to a relative with addiction
• key success factors for planning and facilitating online groups for affected family members

Watch the presentation

About the presenters

Annette is a Research Fellow at Turning Point, leading research and evaluation projects involving telephone and online interventions. Annette holds a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy, Master of Health Science, Graduate Certificate in Management, and PhD. Her doctoral research focused on the experience of care for people living with multiple health conditions, and their health care professionals, particularly from the perspective of person-centred care and access to care. Annette’s health services focus, combined with clinical, education, and management experience, offers a unique perspective on research in addiction services.

Rob is the Manager of Family Drug & Gambling Help at SHARC. He has been working in the human services field for over 25 years across a number of fields including alcohol and other drugs, gambling, men’s behaviour change and family violence, couple and family work, community health, acquired brain injury, and acute and ambulatory services. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Social Work in Management and Human Services, Master of Counselling, Graduate Certificate in Family Therapy, Certificate IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs, and Certificate IV in Work Place Training. He has also been involved in research projects with Beyond Blue, Deakin University, ARBIAS and Monash University.