Richard Velleman
Biographic Data
| ID | 272885 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Velleman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | Velleman |
| SIGNATURE | VELLEMAN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bath |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0012-9704 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
“The satisfaction we get by doing this, you do not get it with any money”: Experiences, and motivations of, and strategies used by community volunteers delivering social or health interventions in Ind…
While community volunteers are increasingly recognized for addressing supply-side gaps in healthcare delivery (e.g., provider shortages), their role in mitigating demand-side barriers (e.g., stigma) remains underexplored. This qualitative study investigated the experiences, knowledge, and roles of community volunteers in Goa, India. We examined barriers and facilitators to community-based work, and strategies for integrating community participati…
Participant experiences with Supporting Addiction Affected Families Effectively (Safe): A qualitative study of the 5-Step method in Goa, India
Background Harmful use of alcohol has demonstrated negative effects on not only the individual engaging in the use, but also their family members. The Supporting Addiction Affected Families Effectively (SAFE) Project aimed to systematically adapt the 5-Step Method, an existing evidence-based intervention intended to support affected family members (AFMs) by focusing on their concerns, coping responses, social supports, to the Indian context with …
Interventions to Improve Mental Health Help-Seeking Attitudes, Intentions and Behaviours: A Systematic Review of Recent Advances
The gap between mental health conditions and care uptake remains a global challenge, despite the availability of effective and affordable treatments.This gap is driven by demand-side barriers, such as lack of mental health literacy (MHL), stigma, etc. that hinder help-seeking.In this systematic review, we critically appraise interventions aimed at promoting help-seeking for mental health conditions.The review protocol was prospectively registered…
The use of geographic information systems (GIS) in studying mental health service delivery: A scoping review
Geographic information systems (GIS) are computer-based spatial mapping tools widely used in public health to examine service availability and access disparities and healthcare utilization. While GIS has supported evidence-based health planning in various domains, its application in mental healthcare service delivery remains underexplored. Our scoping review aimed to address this gap by exploring the scope and type of GIS usage in studying three …
Helping family members affected by a relative’s substance use or gambling: An evaluation study of the 5-Step Method delivered in the Netherlands
Aims: Research over many years indicates that individuals with problematic alcohol or drug use or gambling disorders can cause considerable burden on family members. And yet, affected family members (AFMs) are largely neglected in research, health and social care policy and provision. To address the needs of AFMs of people struggling with a substance use or gambling disorder, the 5-Step Method was developed.Methods: The goal of this study is to e…
Common strategies in empirically supported psychological interventions for alcohol use disorders: A meta‐review
Interventions to increase help-seeking for mental health care in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review
Mental health problems are a significant and growing cause of morbidity worldwide. Despite the availability of evidence-based interventions, most people experiencing mental health problems remain untreated. This treatment gap is particularly large in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and is due to both supply-side and demand-side barriers. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and synthesise the evidence on interventions to impro…
Experiences of a mobile phone delivered brief intervention for hazardous drinking: A qualitative study nested in the Ambit trial from Goa, India
By providing a context to explain the impact of the intervention, the learnings from this study can be used to strengthen the implementation of mobile-based interventions. This study outlines the scope for further research in digital health, such as Internet-based health interventions, and incorporating digital interventions within the ambit of existing health care programmes
Stigma towards dependent drinking and its role on caregiving burden: A qualitative study from Goa, India
Supporting addiction affected families effectively: A feasibility randomised controlled trial of a psychosocial intervention delivered by lay counsellors in Goa, India
Our work indicates that it is possible to identify AFMs through community networking, and have high rates of participation for lay counsellor-delivered psychosocial care. Nevertheless, there is a need for further intervention development to ensure its contextual relevance and appropriateness
Integrating assisted tele-psychiatry into primary healthcare in Goa, India: A feasibility study
Treatment of mental disorders through a tele-psychiatry platform appears to be highly acceptable and is associated with improved clinical outcomes. Considering its potential for scalability, a model of assisted tele-psychiatry integrated into primary care can be an important strategy to increase access to mental healthcare in low-resource settings
Brief intervention for hazardous drinking delivered using text messaging: A pilot randomised controlled trial from Goa, India
Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a mobile-based brief intervention (BI), generate preliminary estimates of the impact of the BI and fine-tune the procedures for a definitive randomised controlled trial. Design: Parallel three-arm single-blind individually randomised controlled pilot trial. Eligible and consenting participants were randomised to receive mobile-based BI, face-to-face BI and information leaflet. Setting: E…
Scaling Up Parenting Interventions is Critical for Attaining the Sustainable Development Goals
Of all the potentially modifiable influences affecting children's development and mental health across the life course, none is more important than the quality of parenting and family life. In this position paper, we argue that parenting is fundamentally linked to the development of life skills that children need in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We discuss key principles that should inform the development of a…
‘He was trapped in his own web’—Dependent drinking as a poverty trap: A qualitative study from Goa, India
The Healthy Activity Program (HAP), a lay counsellor-delivered brief psychological treatment for severe depression, in primary care in India: A randomised controlled trial
BACKGROUND: Although structured psychological treatments are recommended as first-line interventions for depression, only a small fraction of people globally receive these treatments because of poor access in routine primary care. We assessed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a brief psychological treatment (Healthy Activity Program [HAP]) for delivery by lay counsellors to patients with moderately severe to severe depression in primary…
Bereavement through substance use: Findings from an interview study with adults in England and Scotland
Background: Deaths associated with alcohol and/or drugs belong to a category of ‘special’ deaths due to three characteristics: traumatic circumstances of the death, stigma directed to both the bereaved and the deceased, and resulting disenfranchised grief experienced by the bereaved. These factors can impede those who are bereaved in this way from both grieving and accessing support. In response to a lack of research in this area this paper repor…
Compassion or stigma? How adults bereaved by alcohol or drugs experience services
How to promote compassionate care within public services is a concern in several countries; specifically, some British healthcare scandals highlight poor care for service users who may readily be stigmatised as ‘other’. The article therefore aims to understand better the relationship between stigma and compassion. As people bereaved by a drug- or alcohol-related death often experience stigma, the article draws on findings from a major British stu…
Risk and Resilience: Adults Who Were the Children of Problem Drinkers
Initial reliability and validity of a new measure of perceived social support for family members of problem substance users
Aims: To describe the development of a questionnaire for assessment of the perceived functional social support needs of family members who have relatives with substance-related problems.To present preliminary evidence of its reliability and validity, thus completing the set of measures required to quantitatively assess the Stress-Strain-Coping-Support (SSCS) model of addiction and the family.Design: A mixed methodological approach utilising inter…
Addiction in the family is a major but neglected contributor to the global burden of adult ill-health
Month follow-up after brief interventions in primary care for family members affected by the substance misuse problem of a close relative
Following the publication of initial and 3-month data from a prospective cluster randomised comparative trial [Copello, A., Templeton, L., Orford, J., Velleman, R., Patel, A., Moore, L., ... , Godfrey, C. (2009). The relative efficacy of two levels of a primary care intervention for family members affected by the addiction problem of a close relative: A randomised trial. Addiction, 104, 49–58.], an opportunistic 12-month follow-up was undertaken.…
The experiences of affected family members: A summary of two decades of qualitative research
This article is based upon the collective findings of a number of studies conducted in a number of countries during the past 20 years. Female partners and mothers are the family members who have been most represented in the study samples, but the latter also included sizeable numbers of male partners, fathers, sisters, brothers and adult sons and daughters. Citing examples taken from the studies, the article describes some of the most prominent e…
Impact and Coping in Italian Families of Drug and Alcohol Users
This article presents the results of a detailed interview study with 113 family members (FMs) of people with serious alcohol or drug problems, drawn from three different areas of Italy: Ravenna, a medium-sized town in the North (n = 37), and two large cities, in the Centre (Rome, n = 26), and the South (Naples, n = 50). Interviewers used a semi-structured grid covering a range of areas, including the history of the relative's substance misuse, fa…
A synergy between action‐research and a mixed methods design for improving services and treatment for family members of heavy alcohol and drug users
Our project first explored the patterns of disempowerment within 113 Italian families facing the problem of a heavy alcohol or drug user in the family. It then provided therapeutic interventions for the members of a further fifty‐two families, and thirdly, as a part of the diffusion of the results, it provided brief training for 1,011 professionals supplying services for those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. Research undertaken in the …
The importance of family members in helping problem drinkers achieve their chosen goal
This article reviews the evidence demonstrating an interaction between problem drinkers and their family members, showing that there is a great deal of reciprocity between the presence of alcohol related problems, and marital and family problems, and that this reciprocity works in both directions. It then examines the considerable evidence (both from reviews and within individual therapeutic areas) that therapeutic work aimed at improving family …
Addiction in the family is a major but neglected contributor to the global burden of adult ill-health
Compassion or stigma? How adults bereaved by alcohol or drugs experience services
How to promote compassionate care within public services is a concern in several countries; specifically, some British healthcare scandals highlight poor care for service users who may readily be stigmatised as ‘other’. The article therefore aims to understand better the relationship between stigma and compassion. As people bereaved by a drug- or alcohol-related death often experience stigma, the article draws on findings from a major British stu…
Parental Alcohol Misuse in Complex Families: The Implications for Engagement
The impact of chronic parental alcohol misuse on both parenting and child welfare is being increasingly recognized, with such problems featuring in a significant proportion of families in which there are identified child-care concerns. There is a growing body of research which suggests that there are often particular difficulties in gaining access to such families, with effective engagement seen as central to appropriate intervention and to asses…
The experiences of postnatal depression in women from black and minority ethnic communities in Wiltshire, UK
All the women had problematic lives, affected by a multitude of factors, and raised a number of serious concerns that related to health and social care. This has implications for practice and service provision, as demonstrated by the data from GPs and health visitors, in, for example, the provision of advice and information (and in different languages), training, improved communication and inter-agency working, in this area (where the research wa…
New Age' Travellers, Urban Slum Dwellers, Aborigines and Drug Users: Experiences of Collecting Sensitive Data From Marginalised Communities
Voyageurs "New Age", habitants de bidonvilles. Aborigènes et toxicomanes - Expériences dans la collecte de données sensibles dans des communautés marginalisées. Cet articles réunit des thèmes communs d'expériences de collecte de données dans deux recherches en cours. Ces projets veulent accroitre la compréhension des comportements et des attitudes dans des communautés marginalisées et touchent des problèmes sensibles: l'un concernant la santé sex…
Impact and Coping in Italian Families of Drug and Alcohol Users
This article presents the results of a detailed interview study with 113 family members (FMs) of people with serious alcohol or drug problems, drawn from three different areas of Italy: Ravenna, a medium-sized town in the North (n = 37), and two large cities, in the Centre (Rome, n = 26), and the South (Naples, n = 50). Interviewers used a semi-structured grid covering a range of areas, including the history of the relative's substance misuse, fa…
A synergy between action‐research and a mixed methods design for improving services and treatment for family members of heavy alcohol and drug users
Our project first explored the patterns of disempowerment within 113 Italian families facing the problem of a heavy alcohol or drug user in the family. It then provided therapeutic interventions for the members of a further fifty‐two families, and thirdly, as a part of the diffusion of the results, it provided brief training for 1,011 professionals supplying services for those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. Research undertaken in the …
Recovery from post‐traumatic stress disorder in children following road traffic accidents: The role of talking and feeling understood
Forty children were assessed 6 weeks and 8 months after involvement in a road traffic accident (RTA). Ten of the 21 children suffering post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 6 weeks continued to fulfil diagnostic criteria at 8 months. There was no evidence of delayed onset of PTSD in children who had not developed this condition at 6 weeks. Talking about the accident and feeling understood were associated with recovery. Providing children with …
Ways of coping with excessive drug use in the family: A provisional typology based on the accounts of 50 close relatives
This paper outlines an eight‐fold typology of coping actions based upon a qualitative analysis of the accounts provided by 50 close relatives of people with drug problems. In a number of different ways relatives draw attention to the contrasts between these distinguishable ways of coping. Emphasis is placed upon the provisional nature of this typology and upon the compromises between, and combinations of, ways of coping that are often used by rel…
Transverse relationships of the infraorbital foramina in cleft and noncleft individuals
An evaluation of the location of the infraorbital foramina in a transverse plane was undertaken by direct skull and radiographic measurements in unrepaired cleft palate and age‐ and sex‐matched noncleft individuals. Physioprints were obtained on six dry skulls with left‐sided clefts of the primary and secondary palates and on six age‐ and sex‐matched noncleft palate skulls. The left infraorbital foramen was found to be significantly superior in a…
The environmental intergenerational transmission of alcohol problems: A comparison of two hypotheses
Two competing hypotheses concerning the mechanism of transmission of excessive substance use from one generation to the next are tested, using data from a study of 16‐ to 35‐year‐old offspring of problem‐drinking parents. The ‘positive influence’ hypothesis predicts that the more positive has been the offspring's relationship with the problem‐drinking parent during upbringing, the greater the risk of excessive drinking or drug taking in young adu…
Ways of coping with excessive drug use in the family: A provisional typology based on the accounts of 50 close relatives
This paper outlines an eight‐fold typology of coping actions based upon a qualitative analysis of the accounts provided by 50 close relatives of people with drug problems. In a number of different ways relatives draw attention to the contrasts between these distinguishable ways of coping. Emphasis is placed upon the provisional nature of this typology and upon the compromises between, and combinations of, ways of coping that are often used by rel…
New Age' Travellers, Urban Slum Dwellers, Aborigines and Drug Users: Experiences of Collecting Sensitive Data From Marginalised Communities
Voyageurs "New Age", habitants de bidonvilles. Aborigènes et toxicomanes - Expériences dans la collecte de données sensibles dans des communautés marginalisées. Cet articles réunit des thèmes communs d'expériences de collecte de données dans deux recherches en cours. Ces projets veulent accroitre la compréhension des comportements et des attitudes dans des communautés marginalisées et touchent des problèmes sensibles: l'un concernant la santé sex…
Gender differences in sharing injecting equipment by drug users in England
The study investigates whether the higher rates of sharing needles and syringes reported by female injecting drug users (IDUs) also occur in sharing other types of injecting equipment. Structured interviews were carried out with 181 IDUs in two cities (100 in Bournemouth, 81 in Bath), with almost equal numbers of males and females in each sample, recruited through needle exchanges and 'snowballing'. Almost all (92%) had shared some equipment in t…
Recovery from post‐traumatic stress disorder in children following road traffic accidents: The role of talking and feeling understood
Forty children were assessed 6 weeks and 8 months after involvement in a road traffic accident (RTA). Ten of the 21 children suffering post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 6 weeks continued to fulfil diagnostic criteria at 8 months. There was no evidence of delayed onset of PTSD in children who had not developed this condition at 6 weeks. Talking about the accident and feeling understood were associated with recovery. Providing children with …
Recovery from post‐traumatic stress disorder in children following road traffic accidents: The role of talking and feeling understood
Forty children were assessed 6 weeks and 8 months after involvement in a road traffic accident (RTA). Ten of the 21 children suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 6 weeks continued to fulfil diagnostic criteria at 8 months. There was no evidence of delayed onset of PTSD in children who had not developed this condition at 6 weeks. Talking about the accident and feeling understood were associated with recovery. Providing children with …
The experiences of postnatal depression in women from black and minority ethnic communities in Wiltshire, UK
All the women had problematic lives, affected by a multitude of factors, and raised a number of serious concerns that related to health and social care. This has implications for practice and service provision, as demonstrated by the data from GPs and health visitors, in, for example, the provision of advice and information (and in different languages), training, improved communication and inter-agency working, in this area (where the research wa…
Family interventions in the treatment of alcohol and drug problems
Alcohol and drug problems affect not only those using these substances but also family members of the substance user. In this review evidence of the negative impacts substance misuse may have upon families are examined, following which family-focused interventions are reviewed. Several family-focused interventions have been developed. They can be broadly grouped into three types: (1) working with family members to promote the entry and engagement…
The importance of family members in helping problem drinkers achieve their chosen goal
This article reviews the evidence demonstrating an interaction between problem drinkers and their family members, showing that there is a great deal of reciprocity between the presence of alcohol related problems, and marital and family problems, and that this reciprocity works in both directions. It then examines the considerable evidence (both from reviews and within individual therapeutic areas) that therapeutic work aimed at improving family …
Local action to prevent alcohol problems: Is the UK Community Alcohol Prevention Programme the best solution
Parental Alcohol Misuse in Complex Families: The Implications for Engagement
The impact of chronic parental alcohol misuse on both parenting and child welfare is being increasingly recognized, with such problems featuring in a significant proportion of families in which there are identified child-care concerns. There is a growing body of research which suggests that there are often particular difficulties in gaining access to such families, with effective engagement seen as central to appropriate intervention and to asses…
Impact and Coping in Italian Families of Drug and Alcohol Users
This article presents the results of a detailed interview study with 113 family members (FMs) of people with serious alcohol or drug problems, drawn from three different areas of Italy: Ravenna, a medium-sized town in the North (n = 37), and two large cities, in the Centre (Rome, n = 26), and the South (Naples, n = 50). Interviewers used a semi-structured grid covering a range of areas, including the history of the relative's substance misuse, fa…
A synergy between action‐research and a mixed methods design for improving services and treatment for family members of heavy alcohol and drug users
Our project first explored the patterns of disempowerment within 113 Italian families facing the problem of a heavy alcohol or drug user in the family. It then provided therapeutic interventions for the members of a further fifty‐two families, and thirdly, as a part of the diffusion of the results, it provided brief training for 1,011 professionals supplying services for those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. Research undertaken in the …
The experiences of affected family members: A summary of two decades of qualitative research
This article is based upon the collective findings of a number of studies conducted in a number of countries during the past 20 years. Female partners and mothers are the family members who have been most represented in the study samples, but the latter also included sizeable numbers of male partners, fathers, sisters, brothers and adult sons and daughters. Citing examples taken from the studies, the article describes some of the most prominent e…
Month follow-up after brief interventions in primary care for family members affected by the substance misuse problem of a close relative
Following the publication of initial and 3-month data from a prospective cluster randomised comparative trial [Copello, A., Templeton, L., Orford, J., Velleman, R., Patel, A., Moore, L., ... , Godfrey, C. (2009). The relative efficacy of two levels of a primary care intervention for family members affected by the addiction problem of a close relative: A randomised trial. Addiction, 104, 49–58.], an opportunistic 12-month follow-up was undertaken.…
Risk and Resilience: Adults Who Were the Children of Problem Drinkers
Initial reliability and validity of a new measure of perceived social support for family members of problem substance users
Aims: To describe the development of a questionnaire for assessment of the perceived functional social support needs of family members who have relatives with substance-related problems.To present preliminary evidence of its reliability and validity, thus completing the set of measures required to quantitatively assess the Stress-Strain-Coping-Support (SSCS) model of addiction and the family.Design: A mixed methodological approach utilising inter…
Addiction in the family is a major but neglected contributor to the global burden of adult ill-health
Compassion or stigma? How adults bereaved by alcohol or drugs experience services
How to promote compassionate care within public services is a concern in several countries; specifically, some British healthcare scandals highlight poor care for service users who may readily be stigmatised as ‘other’. The article therefore aims to understand better the relationship between stigma and compassion. As people bereaved by a drug- or alcohol-related death often experience stigma, the article draws on findings from a major British stu…
Bereavement through substance use: Findings from an interview study with adults in England and Scotland
Background: Deaths associated with alcohol and/or drugs belong to a category of ‘special’ deaths due to three characteristics: traumatic circumstances of the death, stigma directed to both the bereaved and the deceased, and resulting disenfranchised grief experienced by the bereaved. These factors can impede those who are bereaved in this way from both grieving and accessing support. In response to a lack of research in this area this paper repor…
The Healthy Activity Program (HAP), a lay counsellor-delivered brief psychological treatment for severe depression, in primary care in India: A randomised controlled trial
BACKGROUND: Although structured psychological treatments are recommended as first-line interventions for depression, only a small fraction of people globally receive these treatments because of poor access in routine primary care. We assessed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a brief psychological treatment (Healthy Activity Program [HAP]) for delivery by lay counsellors to patients with moderately severe to severe depression in primary…
‘He was trapped in his own web’—Dependent drinking as a poverty trap: A qualitative study from Goa, India
Scaling Up Parenting Interventions is Critical for Attaining the Sustainable Development Goals
Of all the potentially modifiable influences affecting children's development and mental health across the life course, none is more important than the quality of parenting and family life. In this position paper, we argue that parenting is fundamentally linked to the development of life skills that children need in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We discuss key principles that should inform the development of a…
Stigma towards dependent drinking and its role on caregiving burden: A qualitative study from Goa, India
Psychology (26 works) · Psychiatry (22 works) · Medicine (21 works) · Clinical Psychology (14 works) · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (11 works) · Psychological intervention (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Mental Health Treatment and Access (10 works)