‘Need’, by Kristy
Read the runner-up from Adfam’s Family Voices Competition 2022. Family Voices is an annual poetry and creative writing competition open to families affected by substance use to share their experiences.
Read the runner-up from Adfam’s Family Voices Competition 2022. Family Voices is an annual poetry and creative writing competition open to families affected by substance use to share their experiences.
Councillor Jay Hayes is an elected representative for Bestwood Ward on Nottingham City Council, and the Council’s Executive Assistant for Health and Culture. In November 2022 Jay met with Rob Stebbings from Adfam to talk about his personal experience of being in a family affected by substance use, and his view on the role local…
This article was published for Drink and Drug Use, and the original can be accessed here: https://www.drinkanddrugsnews.com/recovery-street-film-festival-is-back-celebrating-its-eighth-edition/ Over one hundred films have been entered into the festival competition and these entries have been watched by well over one million people to date. The idea has always been to give people with lived experience a platform to…
An exhibition of portraits and words of addiction by Antonia Rolls. With photography by Michael McAlister, drawings by Marie Paul and the wall hanging “Stitch Away The Stigma” by textile artist Natalie Needham. I am an artist, and there is addiction in my family. It is a painful, destructive, chaotic and shameful thing to admit…
Fifteen years ago, my dad died in hospital having spent a week on an intensive care ward because his organs were shutting down. Grieving with my mum and sister, I admit to also feeling a sense of relief that I no longer had to worry about him, feel frustrated about his drinking or ashamed about his behaviour.
In order to fulfil the ambitions of the drug strategy, to inspire hope and change lives by delivering a world-class treatment and recovery system, we must invest in families.
Each day is different, but each day is the same!
Each day we hold our breath.
Is today the day the never-ending suffocating grip squeezes a little harder as you fight not to let it pull you under again?
More and more people are providing unpaid care for family, friends and neighbours. We think carers provide an invaluable resource, and deserve more recognition and support. More research is needed to understand carers’ experiences, and identify more ways to provide support.
Of course I thought I was the only person feeling this way. I understand I was and still am grieving, but the unanswered questions, the shoulda, woulda, coulda, what ifs and if onlys torment me. As a family we didn’t see the signs, or if we did, we didn’t dare to talk about it. The stigma that surrounds alcoholism remains and so the secrets and denial continue for many families.
As a sector, we stand ready to work together with government and wider partners – both local and national – to make the most of this vital opportunity. The hundreds of thousands of people touched by addiction in this country are counting on us all to get this right.