There still exist many barriers to initiating discussions about alcohol in the consultation room. Changing the frame of reference of the concept of alcohol drinking from an addictive disease to a general lifestyle risk factor could overcome many of these barriers.

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A 2-year interprofessional family-oriented training programme for professionals working in the field of primary services (e.g. health care, social welfare, schools, day care) started in Oulu Province, Finland, in 2000. It aimed to provide the trainees with skills to work with families in interprofessional teams, to support them to cope better and to encourage them to develop new models for helping clients. Seventy-six trainees from 13 professions participated. This paper describes the structure, methods and the content of the programme and evaluates its success. Material was content analysed from participants' evaluations at the end of the programme and discussion during a focus group in which three trainees and three trainers participated. During the programme trainees' working methods moved from being detached experts towards client and family-orientation. Job satisfaction also improved. They began to appreciate interprofessional teamwork and found that client and family-oriented working methods supported families in using their own resources in solving problems. The study indicated that the sufficiently long process of education where the interprofessional collaboration has been put in practice already during the education is needed to change the theoretical framework and practical working methods of the trainees.