Changes to treatment and support

Change
Change (person who gambled perspective)

Changes to treatment and support

People describe the changes that they would like to see made to gambling treatment and support services for affected others and people experiencing gambling difficulties.

Affected others need wider availability of a range of support services. Affected others also need support for  a longer duration. They say that just because the person has stopped gambling, it does not mean that they no longer need support. Many affected others emphasise they need  continued support for practical matters such as dealing with family finances, and bereavement support in cases where someone has died by suicide. There also needs to be more support for people impacted by domestic abuse related to gambling.

Affected others say there needs to be specific support available for children of parents experienced gambling difficulties or who have been bereaved by gambling-related suicide.

Affected others tend to say that there is much more support available for people experiencing gambling difficulties than affected others. But they also think this is not enough. Problems with help for the person who gambled impacts them. Affected others say they want it to be easier to access support for the person experiencing gambling difficulties. They want clearer signposting and more knowledge at GP practices. They also say that GPs should refer people to specialists with expertise in gambling addiction, rather than just to general mental health counselling.

For affected others

Affected others say that all forms of resources for them need to be improved as their harms from gambling are often neglected. This includes increasing availability of treatment options, as well as access to social and financial services. Support needs to focus on their specific needs.

I really feel the needs of the affected other are dismissed by many. More aid and support has to be implemented. There seems to be more of an understanding offered to the gambler and very little to the affected other. The gambler receives recognition often for their courage. I agree compulsive gambling is an illness. This is reiterated following several suicide attempts. Despite my hands on support towards him rarely did the medical or social services recognise the potential and actual harm that this caused me. Equally his close family and friends took his side and offered me very little empathy.

There needs to be a wider availability of support services for affected others because at present there are more GA groups and there GamAnon groups, which baffles me because in our local cities there is at least one GA group per city, but there’s only one GamAnon group for the entire like district and that only had, I joined it in lockdown one. It was virtual, obviously, and they weren’t even having weekly meetings. They were just having a WhatsApp chat and a monthly meeting because there was only like five or six members, including me.

Just dropping, just to be able to say, “You know what? I’m having a bad day today. I’m really having a bad day today.” Just sit and chat with somebody or– We used to have that and I suppose we used to have that with this little mental health place that they’ve closed it down of course. It’s been shut down over the last few years, but it was a great place because it was a place where people could go who had mental health problems and just be able to sit and chat with each other or if they needed to chat to somebody who was a support worker or someone, then they could do.

Often, people are given a certain number of counselling sessions or type of treatment, but they feel that this is not enough. There is an assumption once the person who gambled is in recovery, then they will be fine.

Although my heart equally goes out to any person in any addiction that is in recovery, because recovery is a long day-to-day journey, I still don’t believe that there is half enough out there that needs to be to look after the people who are affected by those people with addiction… I have a lot of friends in recovery that I’m extremely proud of. But I just sometimes feel that we go through all of that with them and then just, “You’re all right now. Because they’re all right now, you should be all right now”.

Affected others say it is important to have peer support for where people can talk with others who have been through a similar experience.

There’s a charity called Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide, and that’s for family members… It’s people who have similar stories, but everybody’s story is different, but there are some similarities, aren’t there? I just think, not just for gambling, addiction, but for any addictions. They’re all different. You could lump everybody in together, but to be somewhere where you could talk and be open about your feelings… It would be lovely to, especially at the time, to be able to talk to other people who understood properly.

There should be information or support for the wider family network, who often do not understand gambling addiction.

I think the only thing maybe I didn’t mention was with extended family, like the whole family, that can be difficult because I think they don’t understand what’s going on either. Not everybody has a close family around them, do they? Maybe there’s even the same problem in the family. Sometimes you can be attracted to people who are very like the situation that you grew up in, can’t you? You meet people.

I think maybe more, and again they’re shutting them all down again, but family therapy places are invaluable, I think, for situations. Quite a few people that I know that have been to these, where they’ve gone and got help as a family, not just as the individual in the family, but help as a whole family to go and look at what’s going on. In an ideal world, you’d have more of those, wouldn’t you? I think once the family understands what’s going on, then they’re much better equipped to be able to deal with their loved ones who’s suffering really.

At the end of the day, we’ve got to realise it’s an illness. I think people quite easily get alcoholism and drug addiction because they see that it’s a chemical and it’s something that– They’ve done loads of things, haven’t they? Where they found that the same senses light up in the brain of a gambler that do with somebody who’s an addict to substances or that pleasure centre still fires often. Nick always said that it’s like having a rush, like a heroin shot to a junkie. It’s that excitement, isn’t it? I’ve lost my thread there now.

Having more understanding within a family that’s got an addict might be helpful too. It’d be helpful for them and it’s helpful for the addict as well, because at least they’re being understood, people have got more understanding on what’s going on. Acknowledging that it’s a mental illness. That it’s not just something that people do because they’re evil people, but because it is an actual illness like any addiction that is causing the problem.

Donna

More support for children

People want to see more support available for children who are harmed by another’s gambling.

The [brother’s children] grew up with the impact of gambling and both of them are very, very anti-gambling, I’m glad to say because it can go either way, can’t it, with anything like that? I think they should have had support then and if it had been more open then maybe that would have been accessible to them… I think the understanding of how it impacts an individual, if that was better, and how it then impacts family members of all sorts of different families and friends, I think if there was more understanding of that, then perhaps the support would be better.

Nothing happened for the kids. I kept ringing other charities asking. I got some help through GamCare, a really good lady that talked to me for quite a few weeks. My daughter got thankfully offered something through work where she got a number of weeks free and then some discounted counselling with the same person, which has helped her.

My son was the one who kept saying he didn’t need it the most. Which obviously then kept me thinking, well maybe you do but he was the one that was the hardest to get help for and like I said, we did get like social services or the school because he was a school at that time just doing his– had he just done? No, he’d have been just going into his GCSE year, I think. Anyway, he got a little bit of stuff come through from school. But again, there wasn’t hardly anything, hardly anything and it was just weird. He was such a different– it was amazing.

It was a different experience, but I got less– I wasn’t looking for offers of help because I’m in a different position now. So obviously I knew a lot, I was a lot wiser to what I needed to do or people I needed to speak to or where I needed to go for help but it’s still not really easy because there was still a couple of charities that I know people from really well that I’d rung and asked specific questions and they said, “Do you know what? I actually don’t know if we have someone that can answer that question,” so I don’t know. It’s just that– but you could probably say that for everything. You could probably say for all, all addictions, all charities, all people affected, there’s never– if things were perfect, these things wouldn’t happen, and we are really trying hard to make better situations out there for everyone who goes through the same thing, and maybe, hopefully, in time we will be able to. I know there’s definite holes in our trying still that we need to fill. Because, as I say, he didn’t get any help at all.

Julie

For people experiencing gambling difficulties

Improve access

Often, affected others became responsible for trying to get the gambler to access treatment, but they found themselves unsure of where to go for help. People say that there needs to be more advertising and promotion of the different support and treatment services that are available. People also say that support services should be easier to access.

Having something like in GP surgeries or places where people are to have that directory specifically for gambling rather than you having to wade through tons of information to find anything. To put into places like surgeries and places where people are likely to go and where people can get help as well because then you’ve got a really ready-made resource really, rather than having to search online.

We went to a clinic the other day for just nothing in particular, but she’s trying to discuss why we’re there, and I’m going, “Why haven’t you got any antigambling leaflets and gambling addiction leaflets in your search? Why aren’t there any posters up?” She was like, “Oh.”

I’d love to see a route where perhaps it’s not to the GP as such but that kind of approach where people could self-refer and it’s on the NHS but you get your six sessions or whatever it is, it’s there… I don’t think their GP is the person they go to because all addiction I think carries a sense of shame and like you’ve not been able to manage yourself how people feel they should. I’d like to see that being more accessible in terms of treatment.

I just want to see more help and more people accessing help for all of the things. I think the more outlets, the more support and stuff, that’s available would be better really.

More treatment options

People say there need to be more treatment and support options for people with gambling difficulties.

I’m sure there’s much more that professionals are getting a lot more informed about gambling these days. You would hope, wouldn’t you? I know that there are centres very spread apart where they are helping to treat people who’ve got gambling addiction. Unfortunately, a lot of these centres are so very spread apart, aren’t they? They’re in different parts of the country, they only have a limited amount of space for people, blah, blah, blah.

I think personally that there should be probably groups set up within local health authorities, so like now they’re trying to. Where we are is a bit weird actually because we are on a boundary with two, Derbyshire and Lancashire, I suppose really. It’s very difficult sometimes to get services because you’re on a boundary, so you don’t get the services. I think like we have for alcohol addiction that you’re able to refer people and alright limitedly, to places to help them to stop drinking.

Then there should be more places like that also for gambling addiction, probably more hubs, if you like, where people can go and access, where people can actually go in and– My sister died of breast cancer a couple of years ago. We’ve had a terrible time during lockdown, let me tell you over COVID, and she died two years, three years ago now. There was a place within the hospital, it was actually based within the hospital that she was attached to that people could go.

The person that had cancer could go to it, or the person that lived with the person that had cancer could go to it. There would be different people to talk to people. Because a lot of it to me is about information as well, particularly for friends and family of it, it’s about information and about being able to be informed about what’s available. What can I do to help this person or what can I do to help myself? It was within the hospital ground, but it was separate from the hospital grounds and it was brilliant. It was brilliant.

You could just go and have a cup of coffee there and just chat to somebody, and they would hold the information there if there was anything you needed further, like if you perhaps needed referral to psychiatric services or if you needed referrals. You’ve got to have a point, haven’t you, where you can connect with somebody. For some people going to a GA meeting might be a bit difficult, but if you thought you could go somewhere where you could just sit and have a chat and feel like you’re being listened to, but yet you’re also being helped at the same time.

Donna

There’s obviously the NHS gambling clinics out there, and we all know that they’d love to have a lot more, and with things like 2% of gamblers actually seek treatment who able to get the treatment, but then also these clinics are overwhelmed with the amount of referrals that they get. Having, but again, that’s down to finances and funding. There needs to be this treatment available for the people who are in it, but the crucial thing for me is preventing it from happening. We’re going into having raising awareness, what to do, the signposting, we make clear and everything.

Then also the groups like GamFam and GamLearn, where you can go along. GamFam as an affected other and GamLearn for somebody who has experience with addiction directly themselves, to go to these groups and talk. A lot of the people that I speak to who are in recovery, is because it was seeing somebody else in recovery or coming out to say that they have had a problem, has helped them realize that they can go and get help. Just having more of those places to go. Also, for the example in the Big Step, once you’re part of our community, if you struggle, you’ve pretty much got a whole group of people who are like, “Let’s help them.” We’re here, and you do drop everything, or they do drop everything to help one another. Also, it’s just the amount of stories and everything that come out of what they’ve experienced, so many people can relate to.

Awareness of prevention, the focus of preventing these harms from happening in the first place, so through education, reaching out to young people, having more treatment facilities for those who are already like so many people who are currently experiencing the harm and helping them to stay stopped, like if once they do enter recovery and that it being more long-lasting than what it currently is, like the whole programme. Then also people being aware that there are these amazing groups across the country. Not that you can even just attend from home to speak with people who’ve experienced it and who also have 100% got your back all the time.

Emily

More specialist knowledge and integrated care

People say there is a need for a more comprehensive system of treatment for people experiencing gambling difficulties. This needs to include an expansion of the limited specialist gambling treatment services that are available.

At the same time, general health and social services need to be geared up to detect, manage and refer cases of people experiencing gambling difficulties. There needs to be more awareness about gambling addiction among GPs, and other primary healthcare staff.

With counsellors too, if they’re not aware of it, be trained in addiction, but not just for alcoholics and people that are drug dependent… If you go to the doctors and them being able to recognize that you have got an issue and where to point you. If you’ve been referred for counselling that the counsellor has some knowledge around addiction and specifically gambling. Be able to pick up the signs.

I just want doctors to be able to know where to send them. Not necessarily doctors need to treat them but being able to point them in the right direction. Them having an awareness of it being an addiction… Not just throw tablets at it, maybe give them the tablets in the short term, but be able to point them in the right direction.

I’d love there to be more specialism there because if you ring up talking therapies and you need some help, they are quite generic and that’s no criticism but that’s not going to help a gambling addict or any kind of addict.

Gambling and the reasons for it are multifactorial… It’s a complex issue. It needs to be dealt with in a coordinated way. All the aspects need to be looked at and solutions or actions to address all those need to be dealt with. If you only deal with one part, the factors you may have, you will definitely have some benefit. But the overall benefit might be far less than what you would have been if you had dealt with all the various aspects. So, looking at the health care system, working with partners, I believe that system, the integrated care systems need to start understanding a lot more about what is gambling addiction. Why does it happen and what’s needed to help individuals who have got it?

Get Support

If you feel like you need support or someone to talk to about your own or someone else’s gambling, there are several organisations who can offer help, support and answer any questions you may have.

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