Gambling with Lives trials new support system
The charity Gambling with Lives has launched a new treatment and support system based on the lived experience of those who have suffered gambling harms.
UK.- The support charity Gambling with Lives has launched a trial of a new treatment and support system that was developed by health experts who worked with people who have suffered from gambling-related harm.
The charity said it followed a new design pathway, recognising that victims of gambling harm had struggled with being judged or a with a lack of understanding from mainstream health services.
Liz Ritchie, co-founder of Gambling with Lives, said: “It is essential that people harmed by gambling are at the forefront of designing care and treatment for gambling disorder. We know how few people access treatment, how few feel helped, and this design for a care and treatment pathway aims to redress this.”
To design the system, Gambling with Lives formed focus groups that shared their personal experiences with clinicians and experts on gambling disorders. The experts then designed a pathway that aims to provide a comprehensive approach to outreach, information, education and motivation to seek treatment.
Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, founder and director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic in London, said: “I see the serious harms caused to people by gambling disorder every day at my clinic. An addiction to gambling can affect anyone and can pose a risk to life.
“It is essential that evidence-based services are led by the NHS to ensure quality clinical standards. I welcome this Gambling with Lives project and the work of people harmed by gambling in helping us to ensure that services are integrated with existing NHS pathways and really meet the needs of our population.”
Pilot programme aims to raise standards
Gambling with Lives said its support system would now acknowledge wide-ranging determinants behind gambling harm instead of focusing on the responsibility of individuals. It will also aim to ensure that frontline professionals across the health services are aware of gambling harm and how to treat it.
It has proposed a pilot programme based on the new design to be run in Greater Manchester.
Insights from the trial will be used to raise the standard of the support system for treatment and care across the UK, potentially offering a model for making treatment and care for gambling harms a part of NHS integrated care systems.
Lord Foster of Bath, chair of Peers for Gambling Reform, backed the project. He said: “As parliamentarians work on improving gambling legislation to tackle gambling harm, it’s great to see people who have been harmed by gambling at the forefront of the push to enable more access to evidence-based treatment.
“Our recommendation for the introduction of a smart levy should help fund such treatment, ensure it’s free of industry influence and led by the NHS. We welcome the creative work of Gambling with Lives in this area which is rooted in the needs of families.”
The responsible gambling charities GambleAware and YGAM have both called for the British government to introduce a mandatory levy on gambling operators to fund problem gambling research, support and treatment.
See also: British think-tank calls for ban on gambling advertising
