DrugFAM was established in 2006 by Elizabeth Burton-Phillips who lost Nick, one of her identical twin sons to heroin addiction
in 2004. Having struggled to find support for her own family the aim of DrugFAM is to ensure no family, friends or carers are left
living in isolation, fear and ignorance of any local & national support. We work, wherever possible, in collaboration with any
statutory and non-statutory services to ensure that families affected by a loved one’s use of drugs or alcohol are understood,
educated and supported.

Many of our clients benefit from using just one of our services but as a charity we pride ourselves on being able to offer our families or carers a flexible range of support to meet their needs. Whilst we work with individual family members and carers we focus on ‘whole family recovery’ and our aim is a positive outcome for everyone including the drug or alcohol user. We believe our approach has enormous benefits in terms of physical and emotional wellbeing for individuals as well as improving lives for troubled families.

Our Telephone Support line is available from 9am to 9pm 7 days a week, as well as offering practical support, we are able to set up regular telephone contact from either a staff member or volunteer.

We currently run 5 weekly Support Groups for families in London, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire (details overleaf). Those who attend our groups find the support they receive from the trained facilitators, and more importantly the other members, invaluable in dealing with their family situation.

A new area of work for us is our Befriending Service and is particularly appropriate for those families with additional needs such as disabilities, transport or childcare issues or for those families where English is not the first language.

DrugFAM are able to offer One to One Professional Counselling and Family Counselling for those who are affected by someone else’s use or misuse of drugs or alcohol. Our specialist Addiction Counselling service can look at these issues in confidence exploring different ways of looking at their lives. We have an experienced Education Project team who throughout the year work with organisations such as schools, prisons, the probation service and other professionals to offer them an insight into how a loved one’s misuse of drugs or alcohol can affect the lives of families and carers. Our work within prisons has seen great demand over the last year and this is an area we wish to develop in the future. Sadly, at times, our members require the specialist support of our unique Bereaved by Addiction team. As well as offering bereavement listening services and meetings in person, the trained support team works closely with our professional counsellor to ensure the best possible care for the bereaved individuals and families.
DrugFAM also offers the opportunity to attend our annual Bereaved by Addiction Conference every October.