What Good Support Looks Like (Part 3/5)What Good Support Looks Like (Part 3/5)
Life with Alcohol and Drugs
Robbie Coffey and Daryl Mcleister talk through what effective family-inclusive practice looks like in alcohol and drug support. They outline the evidence, structured approaches like CRAFT and the Five-Step Method, and peer options that can help families and services work better together.
15:49•7 May 2026
What Good Family Support Really Looks Like in Practice
Episode Overview
- Research and policy show that involving families leads to better outcomes, from starting treatment to staying in it and reaching personal goals.
- Family-inclusive practice can act as a bridge into services for people who might otherwise never enter treatment.
- CRAFT helps families improve communication, rethink enabling, and use rewards and consequences more intentionally.
- The Five-Step Method focuses on listening, information, coping styles, and choices without blaming families for how they respond.
- Peer approaches like SMART Family and Friends and Al-Anon offer group spaces for relatives to share problems and work towards practical solutions.
“We know the evidence tells us involving families is the right thing to do.”
How do different strategies aid in addiction recovery? This conversation between host Robbie Coffey and guest Daryl Mcleister focuses on what good family-inclusive support actually looks like on the ground for anyone affected by someone else’s alcohol or drug use.
Daryl sets the scene by stressing that, across Scotland and internationally, the evidence is clear: "We know the evidence tells us involving families is the right thing to do." Policies and research from Scotland and abroad, including the Outcome Framework for Problem Drug Use, all point in the same direction – when families are involved in assessment and treatment, people are more likely to start support, stay in it, and reach their goals. The chat is very practical.
Daryl breaks down how families can become a real force for change, from challenging myths about treatments like methadone to backing up care plans at home. You’ll hear how family support can help people into services in the first place, especially when so many in Scotland still aren’t getting any formal help. For those who like something structured, Daryl talks through two key approaches used by Scottish Families.
CRAFT (Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training) looks at communication, timing rewards, and rethinking "enabling" so families can support change without feeling stuck or guilty. The Five-Step Method takes a gentler route, banning the word enabling altogether and instead helping relatives look at whether they’re engaging with, tolerating, or withdrawing from the problem. There’s also mention of peer-based options like SMART Family & Friends and Al-Anon, which bring people together to work through real-life problems in bite-sized, solution-focused ways.
This episode suits family members, practitioners, and anyone curious about what *effective* support can look like beyond slogans and good intentions. It asks a simple question: if including families works this well, what could change if more services did it as standard?
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