GamCare reports on results of women’s programme
The charity’s evaluation of its Women’s Programme training sessions has found that 85 per cent of the latest round of participants improved their understanding of gambling harms.
UK.- An evaluation report of the responsible gambling charity GamCare’s training sessions for professionals has found that 85 per cent of participants improved their understanding of gambling harms, including how to identify women in need of gambling-related support.
Entering its third year, GamCare’s Women’s Programme aims to foster systemic change across policy, research and treatment to address the under-representation of women seeking support and accessing treatment for gambling harm in England, Scotland and Wales.
The programme brings together a team of training and engagement leads from multiple sectors, including health and social care, mental health, domestic abuse and education.
The evaluation report conducted by inFocus Consulting details the programme’s work in its second year. The programme delivered training to 918 organisations across the UK. After receiving training, 97 per cent of professionals understood how problem gambling impacts women they work with, with 96 per cent of professionals reporting improved confidence in their ability to signpost and refer women to gambling support services.
The Women’s Programme training quickly moved online at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which increased its reach. Women benefitting from improved access to GamCare treatment and support services, include staff at mental health organisations such as Mind and professionals working in local authorities and in housing support services.
Some 85 per cent of professionals improved their understanding after participating in the year two training, compared with 60 per cent of professionals from the year one training.
The charity says that women can be disproportionately affected by gambling-related harms, experiencing financial, relationship and mental health issues. Over the past year, there was a 6 per cent increase in the number of women accessing gambling support in the UK.
Moving forward, the programme aims to increase awareness of gambling support services for women and strengthen information and knowledge shared in this subject area by building an online community. It has supported the development of a women-only chat room and a women-only support group.
The programme will also train professionals from organisations that work in currently underrepresented sectors, such as social care and youth services – organisations that have closer proximity to women who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing gambling-related harms. In addition to this, the programme will raise awareness among healthcare professionals and build stronger relationships with departments of the NHS and other healthcare service providers.
Anna Hemmings, chief executive of GamCare, said: “We’re encouraged to see improved access for women using GamCare’s treatment and support services, and increased reach in our professionals training, which delivers improved understanding of how gambling harm impacts women. Over the past year, we’ve seen an increase in the percentage of women contacting the National Gambling Helpline for support.”
She added: “At GamCare, we know that stigma and shame are a key barrier to women disclosing concerns, either about their own gambling or someone close to them. The Women’s Programme works to reduce stigma, which affects women at risk of experiencing gambling harms, to better understand and break down the barriers they face when seeking treatment. Over the next year, we want to continue to raise awareness of how gambling harm affects women and to signpost the gambling support services available for women.”
Dr Damian Hatton, managing director and senior evaluator at inFocus Consulting, said: “It has been a great pleasure to work with such a dedicated group of professionals, who are clearly committed to the advancement of gambling related support and services for women, which has been historically over-looked. We are excited to see how the insights from the evaluation can be put to best use in the coming months and years!”
Clinicians in the UK have called for the introduction of for a levy on gambling operators in Britain to fund gambling harm prevention and treatment. They propose the creation of an independent health board to oversee how the gambling levy would be spent.
In a paper for the think tank Social Market Foundation, health bosses say the creation of a gambling levy to fund problem gambling treatment and prevention could generate “tens of millions” of pounds for gambling addiction services. Their calls follow those of the industry-supported problem gambling charity GambleAware.
