Developing Peer Support for Families of Veterans with Substance Use Problems

Researchers: Charlie Lloyd (Professor), Lorna Templeton (Senior Research Fellow)
Funder: Forces in Mind Trust
Duration: February 2019 to April 2020

Background

Evidence of the needs of Families of Veterans with Substance Use problems (FVSUs) comes from the experiences of FVSU members themselves and from existing research. FVSUs have talked about the problems they face in relation to their loved one’s substance use, some of which were particularly related to the Armed Forces context. Overall there is little research on this specific topic, and almost no specific support for this group of families. It is clear that there are large numbers of FVSUs, given the high numbers of veterans with alcohol (and drug) problems.

Aims

This project therefore aims to help FVSUs by developing a specific model of peer support for them. Peer support involves training and helping people who have lived experience to work with others who are experiencing these problems. This has worked well with non-veteran family members, so there is good reason to believe it will work with FVSUs.

Practices

In order to develop the new model of peer support, we will do four things to better understand the experiences and needs of FVSUs. We will:

review the existing research
undertake an online survey of FVSUs
interview people with knowledge of our target group (including veterans and FVSUs)
run local networking events with our key partners.

This will allow us to better understand the experiences and needs of this under-researched group and thereby develop a peer support model specially adapted to FVSUs. At this stage we hope to secure further funding to test the new model of peer support in three sites across England and Wales.

The project is being undertaken by the University of York and Adfam. The 4 project partners are SSAFA (an Armed Forces charity), HMP Parc (Wales), Tom Harrison House (Liverpool) and Bristol Drugs Project.