RGF DONATES HALF A MILLION STERLING TO PROBLEM GAMBLING CLINIC

Mainly female problem gamblers to benefit
 
The UK Gambling Commission has announced that its Responsible Gambling Fund has awarded a grant of just over GBP 500 000 to a pioneering Soho-based problem gambling clinic to help with treatment and counselling over the next 18 months.
 
The National Problem Gambling Clinic (NPGC) will use the GBP508,523 grant to offer specialist counselling – called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT – to help adults of all ages, particularly women, to kick the gambling habit.
 
According to the most recent British Gambling Prevalence Survey gambling amongst women increased from 65 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in 2010.
 
NPGC’s multi-disciplinary team provides ‘one-stop-shop’ treatment to anyone in England and Wales and makes exclusive use of CBT for problem gambling.  It claims a high success rate, with 75 percent of patients getting ‘significantly better’ as a result.
 
Patients will also be offered counselling on the phone and online over the next year.  Mothers with young children will even be able to drop their youngsters off with the clinic’s childminder whilst they attend counselling sessions.
 
NPGC has sub-contracted the Consumer Financial Education Body to give free ‘Making the Most of Your Money’ seminars and to offer individual financial advice to problem gamblers on getting out of debt which may have been caused or made worse by their gambling habit.
 
The chairperson of the RGF, Baroness Julia Neuberger, said this week: “NPGC is one of the organisations at the forefront in the battle against problem gambling, especially in targeting groups of people who can’t easily get help or who have fallen outside the reach of other services. I am delighted that RGF’s grant will support this pioneering clinic’s work.”
 
The RGF is a charity that was set up in June 2009 to provide support for research, educational and treatment services across the gambling field.