The Role of the Family in Recovery

In January 2024, Adfam launched a survey inviting adults recovering from drug or alcohol addiction to comment on the part their family played in their recovery. We are delighted that 117 people from across the UK responded. We cannot say if the people who took part are typical of those in recovery (the majority of respondents were White British (84%), most were aged between 35 and 64 (90%) and just over half (51%) were men.) but it is noteworthy just how many of the responses we received chime with the experiences of the very many families we speak to every year and mirror the experiences of Adfam and other organisations in the sector.

One striking finding from our survey is that just over three quarters (76%) of participants said that family member/s played a “significant role” in their recovery. To put this into context, Government figures for the year ending 31st March 2023 record nearly 300,000 people in contact with publicly funded drug and alcohol services. The charity Alcohol Change UK estimates that there are over 600,000 dependent drinkers in the country, and the Office for National Statistics estimates that the UK has about 770,000 frequent drug users. If anything approaching three quarters of these people receive significant support from their families to help them overcome problems caused by drug or alcohol use, then that is a huge help to our drug and alcohol services and represents a massive saving to the NHS.