ARF REPRESENTS THE UK IN EUROPEAN MUTUAL-AID NETWORK OF OVER 1MILLION PEOPLE

After months of liaison, Addiction Recovery Foundation ambassador-at-large Laura Graham went to Brussels in January to meet with the Board of EMNA, the European Mutual-Help Network for Alcohol Related Problems. Their meeting concluded in success, achieving the final step of the application process required to join EMNA.

EMNA was established in Brussels in 2004 as a voluntary not-for-profit organisation with the aim of promoting mutual-aid networks for alcohol problems across Europe. Today, EMNA represents 10 European Union member states and collectively represents over 1million people and families in recovery across Europe.

ARF, the charity which publishes Addiction Today, is now associate member representing the UK: “We are delighted to be part of such a large recovery network and to help bring recovery to more people,” said Graham and ARF CEO Deirdre Boyd.

The objectives of the network are:
• To promote the importance of self-help groups and community programmes for people with alcohol-related problems in Europe
• In particular, to raise awareness of the self-help approach and community programmes in the new member states of the European Union
• To promote self-help groups and community programmes as a way to enable people with alcohol-related problems to overcome dependency, to recover, to re-integrate within their family
• To promote a diversity of effective methods within the approach and community programmes
• To give people affected by the harm of alcohol-related problems a voice
• To exchange and disseminate “best practice” on topics like:
    o Methods
    o Organisation
    o Cooperation with professional treatment system and health authorities
    o The importance of choice, individuality and  diversity
    o Evaluation and data collection
• To strengthen the role of volunteers:
    o As a valuable resource
    o As a complement to professional treatment
    o As a part of a comprehensive approach to alcohol related problems
• To promote dialogue with professionals, health officials, public authorities and the academic community
• To prepare common positions on a European level on issues relevant to those objectives.

You can read more about this synergy for the UK recovery movement in the March issue of Addiction Today journal, the most popular and influential in the UK drug- and alcohol-treatment field.