Later this week, a new National Health Service (NHS) clinic is to start operation in Sunderland as part of the authorities’ efforts to tackle problem gambling that has been spreading across the country.
As the NHS itself revealed, its Northern Gambling Service base situated at the Beacon of Light is set to offer help to people who suffer severe problems due to compulsive gambling, as well as the ones suffering from associated mental health conditions. The new clinic, which is set to open doors in a few days, will offer the services of a consultant psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, consultant psychologist and senior mental health nurse. Additional support would also be available at the headquarters of the service.
According to recent studies, approximately 2.4 million British gamblers are considered being “at risk” from getting seriously hooked on gambling, while around 265,000 adult Brits are classified as problem gamblers at a higher risk. What is even more disturbing is the fact that the people who actually get professional help, support and treatment are fewer than 3% of the ones who suffer from the negative impact which gambling brings to addicted gamblers’ lives.
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The National Health Service highlighted that it does not incline in any way that the problems of Sunderland’s gamblers are more serious than the ones faced by players in other parts of the region.
People, who are to come to the clinic to look for help, would be able to benefit from a variety of addiction treatment programmes, psychological therapies, mental health treatment, peer support and even family therapy aimed at helping them overcome the gambling-related harm that has already affected their lives. Separate types of support would be provided to gamblers’ carers and relatives.
The new Sunderland clinic of the NHS is to be headed by Matthew Gaskell, a consultant psychologist. According to Mr Gaskell, the opening of a new clinic as part of the service that officially started in the UK in 2019 would make the National Health Service’s efforts available to more people in the North-East part of the country where problem gambling rates had been expanding.
As the leader of the new Sunderland-based NHS clinic highlighted, gambling addiction turned into a new public health crisis that has been causing serious harm to a massive number of people in the UK. The negative consequences that are often faced by individuals who struggle to control their gambling, including falling into debt, loss of employment, homelessness, crime, family and relationship breakdowns, mental health issues and even suicide.
Back in September 2019, the NHS opened the first gambling treatment clinic outside London. The clinic that is based in Leeds has been established in a joint effort of the British gambling charity organisation GamCare and the NHS to support individuals who have been unable to deal with the negative consequences of their compulsive gambling by themselves.
- Author
Daniel Williams
