Residential Rehabilitation Pilot Started by GambleAware
Leading charity GambleAware has moved to commission a pilot scheme. The pilot project aims to further the National Gambling Treatment Service’s facilitation of residential rehabilitation for people suffering from gambling-related harm.
Welsh Rehabilitation Centre Involved in Project
Residential rehabilitation centre Gordon Moody, along with Adferiad Recovery, is to provide rehab for adults who may be showing signs of gambling-related harm and disorder, as well as any associated effects such as substance and alcohol abuse.
Adferiad Recover is a rehab and recovery centre based in North Wales, one that combines the skills and experience of its founding charities to provide services for those suffering. Their involvement in this project should prove to be crucial.
Framework for the pilot has been proposed, which would see the support given to those suffering while they run their own rehabilitation in their own time and at a comfortable pace. To do this, they would simply invite friends and family to help with support from the charities.
Rehab programmes are said to include detoxification for those seeking support, managed medically, along with pinpointed mental health support provided by trained professionals.
Grant Awarded for Collaborative Project
GambleAware’s chief commissioning officer Anna Hargrave has spoken out about the new pilot project. She believes that a collaborative approach is a way forward, something that Gordon Moody and Adferiad Recovery will achieve. Their proposal, she has said, can identify obvious opportunities that can be delivered upon via this sort of joined-up thinking.
GambleAware has awarded a grant for the project and has put on record that they believe the two organisations involved to be highly experienced. GambleAware also sees this as a very important step towards increasing the effectiveness, as well as the capacity, of the National Gambling Treatment service.
The National Gambling Treatment Service already does an excellent job in tough conditions, but this pilot should allow them to get more help and support to more people affected by gambling-related problems.
GambleAware’s Large Grants for Gambling Harm Projects
The new project is the latest attempt by GambleAware to tackle gambling harms and their associated effects. The best-known charity of its type in the industry, they have already granted £300,000 to support brand-new research into what are called ‘lived experiences’ of gambling-related harm suffered by those within minority communities.
The charity also commissioned a £250,000 grant back in November, a month before the above grant, to Fast Forward based in Scotland. Fast Forward is to use the grant to research gambling harms suffered by women. We eagerly await the results of considering how the general public, and particularly the government, sees gambling as a whole.
Gambling-related harm is a general and unfortunately common side effect of gambling. However, those harms and how they came about, including what type of gambling medium people use, change depending on race, gender, geography, and age.
More specific research in various parts of the country concentrating on different demographics is needed. But, to help the situation further, it would be great to see specific research done on gambling harms suffered by people depending on their choice of game, sport, or gambling medium.
What number of those suffering gambling-related harm in the UK reach that stage from playing lotteries, bingo, or scratch cards, for example, would be fascinating to find out, regardless of their demographic.
