New guidelines say UK doctors should ask patients about gambling habits
Draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has been published for consultation.
UK.- The health regulator, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), has recommended that doctors should ask people with mental health problems about their gambling habits. The recommendation is made in draft guidance published for consultation.
Health and social care practitioners are advised to ask about gambling when a patient displays depression, anxiety, psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health issues. GPs should also ask about gambling habits when patients are experiencing homelessness or financial problems and if patients have a family history of addiction or have an increased risk of addiction due to taking certain medications or due to a neurological condition.
GPs working in the judicial system should ask patients about gambling behaviours every time they are in contact with the police, liaison services, probation services, courts or prisons. The questions should be direct, and they should direct patients to an NHS website to complete a questionnaire based on the problem gambling severity index.
The recommendations were made by an independent committee comprising medical professionals and people with lived experience of harm.
Professor Jonathan Benger, chief medical officer and interim director for guidelines at NICE, said the committee had “scrutinised all the available evidence to identify treatments and therapies that have been shown to work and offer good value for money.” He added: “The result is this useful and usable advice to help NHS clinics as they develop their service.”
Will Prochaska, strategy director at charity Gambling With Lives, said: “This draft guidance will help support people who’ve been lured into harm by the gambling industry. It’s essential healthcare professionals understand the risk gambling poses to their patients and know where to refer for evidence-based treatment.”
“The government now needs to honour its commitment to consult on plans for the independent funding of treatment for gambling addiction.”
NHS mental health director Claire Murdoch said: “We will work with NICE on this consultation process and while this new guidance will ensure the NHS can help even more people struggling with gambling addiction to receive evidenced based treatment, it is vital that the billion-pound industry also takes action in line with the government’s white paper to stop people coming to harm in the first place.”
The consultation will run until November 15.
In July, NHS England announced that it would increase the number of gambling addiction clinics it runs from eight to 15 due to “record demand” for its services. The new clinics will be located in Blackpool, Bristol, Derby, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Thurrock in Essex.
They join existing gambling addiction clinics in Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Telford. Together the clinics will have the capacity for up to 3,000 patients nationwide.
The news comes on the back of new figures about the number of patients referred to gambling support services. The NHS says 1,389 people were referred for help last year, a rise of around a third from the year before and of 8 per cent from two years ago.
See also: British Gambling Commission assigns £32.8m to GambleAware
