QAAD Events
QAAD events are opportunities for Friends to meet for mutual support and to deepen our understanding of harm and hope relating to substance use and gambling. COVID’s lockdowns led us to run our first online events, enabling Friends from across the country to gather in a new way.
Feedback from these was positive and we plan to resume in-person meetings, combined with occasional online events. We are keen to facilitate further meetings and would welcome contact from Friends wishing discuss this possibility in more detail. Please call or email our Director, Alison Mather.
Details of future events will be available on this page and in QAADRANT. If you would like to be added to the events contact list, please forward your details to our Director.
QAAD Conference 2024
We are very pleased to confirm that we will hold our next residential conference in Summer 2024. All Friends are welcome, particularly those with personal or family experience, and those who have a professional or spiritual interest. Traditionally, our conferences were held at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, but with the announcement of its sad closure, we are exploring alternative venues. Full details will be provided in due course.
QAADNET meetings
QAADNET meetings have a theme, and sometimes a speaker, and are open to all interested Friends. In particular, they provide support for those personally affected by harm resulting from substance use or gambling.
We cover a wide range of subjects, reflecting the interests and concerns of those attending, for example: personal experience; spiritual upholding; counselling; criminal justice; homelessness; residential treatment; medical settings; day-care; employment/ training; education; working with young Friends – and young Friends themselves.
Click here to read an article which gives an insight into the character of a QAADNET meeting.
Past Events – recordings and details
‘Moving On – Supporting people in early recovery to rebuild their lives’
In April 2022, we welcomed Brajna Greenhalgh (MSc Psychology, counsellor and post-graduate researcher, Bangor University) as our speaker. Brajna described ‘Moving On in My Recovery’, a cognative behavioural programme piloted in Wales, designed to support people in early recovery to develop resilience and rebuild their lives. She highlighted the important role of people with lived experience who were involved both in the design and co-delivery of the programme. She went on to give details of two related programmes which encourage people who are considering treatment to take the next step, and programme’s mobile app which is available to download free of charge. To view Brajna’s presentation slides, please click here.
Further information about all three programmes and the app can be found here: https://www.moving-on.uk/
QAADNET: Faith in Recovery?
Saturday 4th December 2021
We were pleased to be joined by Dr Andrew Williams (Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Cardiff University) who provided the introductory talk for the meeting. He outlined the findings of research that he and his colleagues have conducted into faith-based alcohol treatment. This raised serious concerns about some treatment providers’ approaches and the ethical and health implications they have for highly vulnerable residents.
Special Interest Group: ‘How does our faith help us to understand and respond to addiction?’
Monday 2nd August 2021
Andrew Misell (Director for Wales, Alcohol Change UK and Cardiff LM) was our speaker at this Special Interest Group. The focus of his talk ‘What’s faith got to do with it?’ was on ‘faith as expressed in service’ and that people are important – all people. Andrew reflected on what faith means to him in the context of substance and addiction, based on his personal thoughts as a Quaker and drawing on his professional experience of working for a national charity concerned with these issues.
QAAD Webinar: ‘The Nature of the Beast – addiction and how we can stand up to it’
Saturday 23rd January 2021
QAAD’s first online event took place on Saturday 23rd January. The webinar was attended by 45 participants from across the country and abroad. Our guest speaker was the leading addictions academic, clinical psychologist and author Professor Jim Orford, (Emeritus Professor of Clinical & Community Psychology, Birmingham University). Jim spoke about the key factors which drive addiction, drawing on his many years’ experience, research and campaigning.
If you would like further information about Jim and his work please visit: www.gamblingwatchuk.org and www.afinetwork.info