Evaluation and research

aq

We were founded as part of a Birmingham University research project in 1977; ever since, we’ve made sure that evidence and research underpin all of our services.

Sometimes we commission our own research and develop a new support service based on the findings. Over the years, many of our services have been developed in this way. At other times, we’ve been involved in wider research and evaluation to identify best practice in our work.

This means that when you use an Aquarius service, you know our services are based on strong evidence about what works.

If you’d like to discuss the research we’ve done or future research opportunities, feel free to email us at headoffice@aquarius.org.uk.

Some of our recent projects include:

This project focused on the needs of over-60s and how best to respond to their use of alcohol.We were funded by the Big Lottery ‘Silver Dreams’ to develop or work with older people through the Time of My Life project, which produced an intervention model that could be implemented nationally.

Download our best practice guide.

We funded research carried out by Professor Sarah Galvani to develop a community alcohol intervention model. The research led to the creation of the Shanti Project. A report can be found here.

We’ve since launched new guidance on setting up a specialist project for people from the Punjabi community with alcohol problems. The guidance, developed by Aquarius with researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Birmingham, is based on the evaluation and learnings of the Shanti project.

The project explored whether or not motivationally-based treatment is as effective as the more intensive socially-based treatment. A report on the project can be found here.

We delivered this project in partnership with the University of Bath and the University of Birmingham exploring the impact of involving family members in an individual’s treatment.

We were part of this piece of research carried out by Manchester Metropolitan University.

We were part of a national research project by Alcohol Change UK looking at community response to excessive drinking and alcohol related disorders.

Funded by Alcohol Change UK, we piloted a programme looking at whether the 5-Step Intervention Method could be adapted to support adults bereaved through substance use.