Reducing the Harm Caused by Gambling Victorian Auditor-General s Office

Reducing the Harm Caused by Gambling

Gambling is legal and easily accessible in Victoria. However, gambling can cause serious harm to individuals, their families, friends, and the wider community. Gambling harm costs all Victorians approximately $7 billion per year through damage to relationships, health, and wellbeing, financial loss, and other societal costs.

Who we examined

The Victorian Gaming Trust (Foundation) was established in 2012 to reduce gambling harm.

The Foundation is a legislative body within the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS).

What we examined

We have investigated whether the Foundation has achieved its intended outcomes and impacts through:

Understanding gambling harm;
Harm to victim injury; and
Treatment services

What we concluded

The Foundation does not know whether prevention and treatment programs are effectively reducing the severity of gambling harm.

The Foundation may be able to help some people through its programs, but does not know their wider impacts. This is because the Foundation lacks an outcomes-based framework within which to develop its programs and measure their outcomes.

Additionally, the Foundation funds research and program evaluations but does not necessarily use this data to improve program design or service delivery.

What we recommended

We made seven recommendations to the Foundation, including two to conduct research and evaluations to improve programs, three to develop evaluation and outcomes frameworks to improve how gambling harm reduction is funded, evaluated and best practice promoted, one to improve how player assistance is reported to clients across different services, and one to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of attention.

We also jointly recommended that the Foundation, DJC, the Department of Health and the Department of Families, Justice and Housing work together to better support clients with co-occurring conditions.

Video presentation

Key facts

Source: Vago and Browne et. al. (2017), The social costs of gambling in Victoria, as published in the Foundation's 2018-19 annual report.

Support options

Gambling problems refer to the negative consequences caused or exacerbated by gambling, including mental and psychological distress, financial problems and interference with relationships, work and school. Gambling addiction can co-exist with other problems, such as mental illness, alcohol or drug use, and domestic violence. If you or someone you know is affected by a gambling addiction, there are support options available to you. These include:

Gambler’s Helpline

Gamblers Helpline provides secretly free support and advice 24 hours a day, for those affected by gambling (themselves or others). Gamblers Helprine can introduce local services for economic counseling and therapeutic counseling.

Telephone: 1800 858 858 or 1800 262 376 (youth line)

Gambling Help Online

We provide anonymous, free, secret advice and counseling in an e-mail or 24 hour and 365 days online live chat.

1800RESPECT—National sexual assault, domestic family violence counselling service

Provides information, introductions, and counseling services to people who have been sexually assaulted, domestic violence, and those who are in danger. Friends, family and experts can be used. 1800respect offers a closed service 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day.

Telephone: 1800respect (1800 737 732)

Men’s Referral Service

Telephone counseling, information provision, and referral services for male domestic violence, operated in Victoria, New Southwales, and Tasmania. A central window for men who take responsibility for violence.

Telephone: 1300 766 491

Kids Helpline

Kids HelPline is the only free private counseling service in Australia for children and young people between the ages of 5 and 25, a 2 4-hour confidentiality of 24 hours a day.

Telephone: 1800 551 800

Lifeline

Lifeline is a nationwide philanthropic organization that provides 2 4-hour crisis support and suicide prevention services to all Australians who have experienced personal crises.

What we found and recommend

We discussed with the Foundation and took into account their opinions. The full text from the Foundation is in the appendix A.

Understanding gambling harm

The Foundation’s research on gambling harm

Since its establishment in 2012, Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation has provided funds to identifying academic research:

Group with the highest risk of gambling addiction
Social and environmental factors of gambling addiction
A high rate of health problems of people who have experienced gambling damage.

The Foundation survey also confirmed that the group with the highest risk of gambling addiction is as follows:

People with mental illness
Youth, especially a man aged 18 to 24 years old
Aboriginal and Tresker Islands
From cultural and linguistic communities (Cald)
Social and culturally isolated people, such as living in rural areas and rural areas.

In this report, lo w-risk, mediu m-risk, and problem gambling, defined in the "Gamblin g-dependent Passionate Contractor" described in Section 1. 2 and the appendix E.

However, please be aware that terms such as "gambling problem" and "responsible gambling" imply that problem gamblers only face gambling losses due to bad choices or character mistakes. This may reinforce the stigma around gambling and make it harder for people to seek help. Therefore, we aim to limit the use of these terms as much as possible.

Foundation research has shown that gambling harms include not only financial losses but also emotional and psychological distress. Gambling harm is more severe at an individual level but also has a wider impact on the community. Harm from low and medium risk gambling accounts for 70% of harm in Victoria, due to the large number of people who participate in this type of gambling and the impact on family and other relationships.

Applying research to program and service design

Based on our research data, the Foundation focuses on the following activities:

Prevention activities targeted at the whole community, such as media campaigns about gambling harm
Prevention and early intervention efforts, such as "sports club" programs for people at low and medium risk of gambling harm.

However, as of 2015, the Foundation does not fund research on gambling treatment and support services. As a result, opportunities to use evidence to improve treatment services are missed.

There is not always a clear link between research evidence and the Foundation's program design. For example, research on ways to reduce stigma and piloted tools to support gamblers with poor mental health have not been used to improve service design.

The Foundation's lack of plans to conduct research to improve its program is inconsistent with its legislative mandate to reduce gambling harms and its responsibilities as the sole public funder of gambling treatment services.

Recommendations about understanding gambling harm

Require funded research by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Authority to identify recommended actions to improve program practice and services, where appropriate.
Monitor implementation of recommendations
Report progress to the Victorian Play Commissioner's Board and annual report

Introduce peer support as part of the Victorian Problem Gambling Foundation's treatment and support services (Section 4. 2)
Investigate the causes of client dropout from Gamblers Help services and use the findings to improve client engagement and retention in counselling (Section 4.)
Evaluate the various treatment approaches of the Gamble Reduction Foundation of Victoria for gambling addiction and evaluate its effectiveness (see section 2. 1 and 4. 6).

Preventing gambling harm

Prevention programs aim to prevent activities from acts that can lead to gambling harm. This includes the provision of harmful education and gambling activities to replace gambling.

The result s-based measures enable the organization to monitor the effects of programs or treatments on individuals, groups, or communities.

Prevention programs

Programs and services broadly target at-risk groups

Based on the survey, the Foundation has developed a wid e-i n-target preventive program. These programs will reach the target group because it is provided by an organization connected to the local community.

Prevention programs lack clear aims and outcome-based measures

Most institutional preventive programs include general education and awareness. Most of them do not have a clear goal or achievement indicators so that the Foundation can grasp whether it is an effective program to prevent damage. This is because the Foundation does not provide sufficient support or guidance for program development to his partners.

Furthermore, the foundation has not implemented the following:

Evaluate whether dangerous factors affecting gambling addiction are effectively reduced or strengthened protection factors.
There is no systematic approach to reflect the lessons gained from the trial initiatives in continuous programs.

Danger factors / protection factors are related to the combination of individuals, families, and local communities that may increase or reduce gambling harm. The community space with a Pocky machine is a risk factor, and the fact that there is a safe recreational activity at night is a protection of gambling harm.

The gambling field support program will provide staff working in the gambling to identify and support customers who have suffered gambling damage.

The Sports Club Program aims to deal with sports gambling among young people through the relationship with regional and elite sports clubs.

Among the Foundation's preventive programs, sports gambling programs are the most advanced in clarifying how they intend to affect the goals of the program and the relevant risks.

The Foundation has dealt with these gaps by providing guidance to the fun d-provided partner to formulate clear goals and achievement indicators.

Impact of prevention programs

Since 2015, the Foundation has evaluated all major prevention programs and activities. As a result, it has led to improvement of program implementation methods, such as improving teachers in the field support program and improving team targets in sports club programs. However, the evaluation of the Foundation tracks the results of the programs such as the number of training sessions provided, and does not always evaluate whether the preventive program has influenced the target group.

For this reason, the Foundation does not necessarily know the characteristics of programs that are effective in preventing gambling and the most effective approach.

For example, the Foundation evaluated a media campaign aimed at reducing the risk that gambling is part of sports. According to the Foundation's evaluation, the campaign has achieved a certain level of consciousness, but has disappeared over time. The evaluation was useful in understanding the level of the campaign, but did not provide information on the impact of the program in preventing or decreasing the harm.

The Foundation's media campaign is less than the size and strength of sports betting companies on advertising. However, the media campaign consumes a considerable part of the Foundation budget. Therefore, the Foundation should evaluate the cos t-effectiveness of the media campaign in connection with the overall purpose of reducing the risk of harmful harm to youth by sportsbating.

Prevention strategy and outcomes framework

Despite the provision of funds for a wide range of prevention programs, the Foundation does not have a prevention strategy that outlines the goal of preventive prevention, measures taken to achieve it, and how the preventive programs will contribute.

In addition, there is no framework based on results to measure whether the preventive program or treatment service is effective in reducing the damage caused by gambling. Once in 2014, twice in 2018, a total of three organizations have been reviewed, and the need has been emphasized.

Legal authority of the Foundation

The 2011 Gambling Foundation Law, Victoria, requires the Foundation:

Reduces the spread of gambling addiction
Reduces the seriousness of gambling damage
The

The Foundation acknowledges that he has only a limited understanding of the impact of programs and services on its legal mission and strategic priority. In December 2019, we created a framework for results. But this is still in the early stages. In early January 2021, the Foundation hired an external consultant to proceed.

The Foundation is in the early stages of developing a common output and outcom scale to evaluate local partnership prevention programs. Recently, as part of the improved sports club program, it has focused on both processes (program implementation methods) and outcomes (achieved results).

Building community capacity to prevent harm

Despite investing in 70 projects through regional prevention partnership projects since 2014, the Foundation provides sufficient guidance and resources to actively build regional groups that prevent gambling damage. I didn't get.

A practical community is a group of people who learn better ways while share interest and passion, and interacts regularly.

At the end of 2019, the Foundation launched two practical communities for funding program staff to share knowledge and best practices. This is a positive step, but we advised us that the role of the Foundation is not an aggressive and strategic leader, but a supported observer.

Without the Foundation leadership, the practical community is in danger of being operated without strategic direction. In this case, the range of improvement of the entire sector may be limited in the prevention and treatment program.

Recommendations about programs to prevent gambling harm

Designation of preventive programs that try to clearly deal with identified risks / protection factors that harm gambling addiction (see section 3. 1)
Common results indicators or agency indicators set (see section 3. 3 and 3. 4) so that both individual program achievements and overall programs can monitor the achievements of the overall program

Individual guidance and materials to support program design and implementation (see section 3. 4)
An opportunity for learning exchange between subsidies and subsidy organizations (see section 3. 4). < SPAN> Foundation acknowledges that he has only a limited understanding of the impact of programs and services on its legal mission and strategic priority. In December 2019, we created a framework for results. But this is still in the early stages. In early January 2021, the Foundation hired an external consultant to proceed.

Treating gambling harm

Outcome-based performance management

Providing service choices for clients

A practical community is a group of people who learn better ways while share interest and passion, and interacts regularly.

Designation of preventive programs that try to clearly deal with identified risks / protection factors that harm gambling addiction (see section 3. 1)

Programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and CALD communities

Common results indicators or agency indicators set (see section 3. 3 and 3. 4) so that both individual program achievements and overall programs can monitor the achievements of the overall program

Individual guidance and materials to support program design and implementation (see section 3. 4)

An opportunity for learning exchange between subsidies and subsidy organizations (see section 3. 4). The Foundation acknowledges that he has only a limited understanding of the impact of programs and services on its legal mission and strategic priority. In December 2019, we created a framework for results. But this is still in the early stages. In early January 2021, the Foundation hired an external consultant to proceed.

Supporting people with co-occurring conditions

A practical community is a group of people who learn better ways while share interest and passion, and interacts regularly.

Developing specialised gambling mental health support

Managing performance and client outcomes

Designation of preventive programs that try to clearly deal with identified risks / protection factors that harm gambling addiction (see section 3. 1)

Common results indicators or agency indicators set (see section 3. 3 and 3. 4) so that both individual program achievements and overall programs can monitor the achievements of the overall program
Individual guidance and materials to support program design and implementation (see section 3. 4)

An opportunity for learning exchange between subsidies and subsidy organizations (see section 3. 4).

Gamblaz Help will provide free support for Gambling, a Victorian residents, for free. Gamblers Help providers know that this service helps some people, but as a whole, as a whole because they do not have a resul t-based framework for monitoring service performance. I do not know if it is effective.

Recommendations about programs to treat gambling harm

Furthermore, the Foundation does not strategically use its extensive service data to determine whether access improvement and services meet client needs.
The Foundation does not systematically monitor whether the service flow meets customer needs.
The three services of Gamblas Help (Gamblas Helprocal, Gambles Hell Pline, Gambling Help Online) are almost independent of each other. In other words, customers cannot easily move between services and receive support in the best way to meet their needs.

Since the Foundation assumes that customers prefer fac e-t o-face counseling, telephone and online services are limited to shor t-term interventions and information.
When the COVID-19 became popular, Gamblaz Help shifted the service to a remote medicine. As a result, the Foundation is considering whether a spelled beetle can be part of continuous services in areas and rural areas that have not received any particular services.

1. Audit context

Programs for Aborigini, Tresker Islands and Cald Community include group counseling, economic counseling, community participation, and educational activities focused on wellbies.

The Foundation has developed a program for prevention and treatment for the Aboriginal, Tresker Islands, and Cald communities. However, there is no formal referral route between the Gamblas Hell Pline and the online gambling helpline services and these programs.

The Foundation has missed the opportunity to improve the access and service route in these communities to specialized programs from Gamblers Helpline and Internet Gambling Helpline.

This chapter provides essential background information about:

According to the Foundation survey, gambling damage often experiences convertedness. Regional institutions provided funds to provide Gamblers Help Regional Services also provide other services such as related health services, alcohol and other drug services, and support for domestic violence. For this reason, gambling addiction patients may be introduced to other services.
The coexistence situation is a situation where you experience it at the same time as other problems. For example, gambling damage may have experienced mental illness, homeless, or domestic violence at the same time.
However, this facility has no consistent approach because there is no process of the entire system that links clients with CO state to other support services. Therefore, the services that can be received by the client can greatly affect the services of certain local organizations to be accessed and the local relationships in the group.
At the system level, the Foundation does not agree on the route of gambler regional services with state mental health, domestic violence, family violence, alcohol and other drug services. This means that people with gambling addiction may not be able to provide appropriate support for the symptoms they have, and those who access the health and welfare services in Victoria. It means that you may not know that you can provide support focusing on gambling addiction. The Foundation has been involved in public health staff in the state, but has reported that it has not been achieved to affect the state public health policy.
The Alfred Health Foundation provides funds to the Alfred Health and Gambling Harm Burg Program to provide specialized support to gamblers, which have mental illness. Although this is a positive step, the Foundation's achievement indicators are based on withdrawal, so the ability to understand whether this program has achieved the intended effect is limited. In addition to the program, the Foundation does not plan to build a sit e-level introduction process to connect local gambler customers to existing mental health services.

1.1 Gambling in Victoria

Types and methods of gambling

The Foundation collects a wide range of service performance data in the flow of gamblers. However, the data is not used to determine whether the service meets the client's needs or to integrate the flow of three services, Gambles Help. For example, if you make use of data more, you should be able to provide the following information to the foundation:

After the first Gamblas Hell Pline, how many customers left the Gamblas Help Service, and why?
Whether the outreach and preventive program have increased the awareness of Gambles Help Service.
Analysis of service data showed that many clients experienced little improvement in their health and wellbeing despite receiving measurement-based treatment. However, the degree of improvement did not appear to depend on the amount of counselling received.
This suggests that the Trust is missing an opportunity to analyse existing data to understand how it can improve service delivery and outcomes for its clients.
Online gambling support and all other player support services (see section 4. 2)

Local player support services and peer support options (see section 4. 2)

Player helplines and gambling support online services and programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, where appropriate (see section 4. 3)

Complete a strategic review of key service datasets to identify gaps or quality issues that limit the usefulness of these data (see sections 4. 2, 4. 3 and 4. 6)

Work with player support services to further develop customer-level outcome indicators that measure impact and are fit for purpose (see section 4. 6).

Gambling is common and socially accepted in Victoria. Approximately 70% of Victorian adults gamble. It is also the state's fifth-highest source of tax revenue, bringing in over $1. 7 billion in 2019-20.

However, gambling harm costs Victorians approximately $7 billion per year. The highest costs are related to family and relationship problems, followed by emotional and psychological problems and financial losses.

To address gambling harm, the Foundation began operating in 2012 under the Victorian Gambling Abuse Prevention Act 2011.

Gambling in Victoria

Gambling and Problem Gambling

1.2 Gambling harm

Public Health Approach to Gambling Harm

Problem gambling

The Foundation and its Strategy

Foundation Programs and Services

Adults can play a range of legal gambling products, both in person and online. These include:

Electronic gaming machines or pokies

Table games

Casino games

Bets

Markets and woes

Lotteries

A Foundation survey conducted in 2018-19 found that approximately 70% of Victorian adults had participated in some form of gambling in the past 12 months. Nearly 20% of Victorian adults have gambled online and it is growing rapidly, particularly popular with sports bettors, with 71% of sports betting now taking place online.

Gambling harm

Figure 1A shows losses from gaming products from 2007-08 to 2017-18. Pokies losses remain the largest, at $2. 7 billion in 2017-18, but betting losses increased by about 835% over this period, from $39. 8 million to $371. 7 million.

However, this figure does not include losses recorded at online bookmakers licensed outside Victoria. Therefore, the actual losses from sports betting are likely to be much higher.

Figure 1A: Losses from Gambling Products 2007-08 to 2017-18, Victoria
Source
The closure of gambling venues from March to October 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on gambling losses. Figure 1B shows that Victorians spent $710 million less on online gambling machines compared to 2018-19.
However, earnings reports from major gambling companies show that spending on online betting is increasing. One major sports betting company reported that its Australian online net revenue increased by 45% in the first half of the year.
Figure 1B: Monthly online gambling losses in Victoria, July 2018-June 2020
Source: Based on Vago, Victorian Gambling and Alcohol Regulation Commission, current gambling expenditure by local government area - monthly, published July 2020.
Gambling harm refers to any negative consequences caused or exacerbated by gambling.

Gambling addiction is usually associated with problem gambling, where people have difficulty limiting the amount or time they spend on gambling.

To assess the risk and prevalence of problem gambling, researchers use the Gambling Severity Index (PGSI).

Health and gambling

PGSI scores are classified as...

For example
I have no negative effects on playing alone.
Very occasionally I spend more than my limit or feel guilty about gambling.
I often spend more than my limit, waste time, or feel guilty about gambling.
I often bet more than my limit, bet to win, or feel anxious about gambling.
The Foundation provides the PGSI to enable people with problem gambling to self-assess their risk level. This tool is included in Appendix E.
Gambling harm is not limited to individuals who gamble at risk levels as assessed by the PGSI. It also affects the gambler's family, friends and the wider community.
The Foundation-funded study identified seven types of gambling problems:

1.3 A public health approach to gambling harm

Interpersonal problems

Health problems

Emotional or psychological distress
Financial problems

Emotional and psychological distress

Cultural problems

Criminal behaviour

1.4 The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation

Regression analysis is a statistical procedure that estimates or predicts the relationship between a dependent variable (e. g. gambling disorder) and one or more independent variables (interpersonal problems, health, emotional distress, financial loss).

Responsibilities and alignment with other authorities

Based on the regression analysis, the study found that most gambling disorders (50, 2%) are associated with low-risk gambling behaviours, rather than problem gambling (15, 2%). Interpersonal harm is the most common type of gambling disorder. It accounts for a quarter of all harm experienced by Victorians. Other significant harms include health harm (21%), emotional and psychological distress (18, 6%), followed by harm from financial loss (15, 6%).

Reduces the spread of gambling addiction
Reduces the seriousness of gambling damage
The

Domestic violence

Homelessness
Financial difficulties
Legal problems

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion

Unemployment

Relationship breakdown

In 2010, the Productivity Commission recommended that while the government should continue to provide support to people with gambling problems, it should adopt a broader public health approach to tackling gambling problems.
A public health approach to gambling aims to:
Focus on building well-functioning communities, rather than focusing solely on individuals experiencing harm.
Prevent gambling-related harm.
As shown in Figure 1C, the World Health Organization framework for developing public health interventions includes four key steps.

Figure 1C: Steps in a public health approach to interventions

The Foundation's funding and strategic priorities

Source

Established in 2012 under the Victorian Problem Gambling Foundation Act 2011 (ACT), the Foundation is a statutory body that works to address problem gambling in the Victorian community.

The Act requires the Foundation to:
Reduce the prevalence of problem gambling
Reduce the severity of gambling harm

Promote responsible gambling

The Foundation does not regulate gambling in Victoria. State and federal government agencies share gambling regulations and policy proposals:

Victorian Commission on Gambling and Alcohol Regulation regulates gambling through licensing and compliance activities.

The Judgment and Regional Security Bureau (DJCS) formulates policies related to gambling and horse racing industries and provide advice to consumer issues, gambling and alcohol regulations.

The Australian government regulates advertisements for gambling and online games during sports broadcast.

For the past eight years, the Foundation approaches gambling harm and has an internationally approved World Health Organization (WHO), which is an internationally approved "Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion" (Charter). It has evolved alongside.

The Charter recommends that activities in the following fields should give priority to public health initiatives:

Construction of healthy public policy
Building a support environment
Building a support environment, creating support environments, and building local communities

Personal ability development

Change direction of medical services to prevent disease

1.5 Prevention programs

The Foundation continues to provide treatment services for those who have suffered gambling, but has changed programs and strategic priority to focus on prevention and early intervention.

The Victorian government has funded the Foundation four years from the regional support fund from the hotel's e-game game consoles. In the budget of 2018-19, $ 153 million was assigned to the Foundation in four years. This was an increase of $ 3 million than the Foundation's previous funding cycle and to support damage prevention programs.

In 2018, the Foundation announced the first thre e-year plan and set a strategic priority from 2018 to 2016:

Public health approach to prevent gambling damage.

A partnership approach to improve the health of the local community and wellby swings.

A cooperative approach to establishing a position as a center of expertise to fulfill our mission for all Victoria people.

Figure 1D shows the breakdown of the Foundation's main business function of the Foundation 2020-21.

Figure 1D: Breakdown of budget by business function (2020-21)

source
The breakdown of this budget can also be divided between the prevention and the flow of treatment, which combines delivery, communication and marketing costs. In FY2020-21, this reached $ 30. 76 million as follows:

stream

2020-21 financing ...

Figure 1D: Breakdown of budget by business function (2020-21)

Increase the people's awareness of gambling harm

Promotion of Gendalm Support Services

Prevents people in groups that are at risk of gambling addiction.

Providing treatment and support services

Support people who have already experienced gambling damage
Foundation prevention programs are targeted for various groups as follows:

Prevention program ...

subject...

Figure 1D: Breakdown of budget by business function (2020-21)

Provided ... provided ...

School education program

Junior high school students throughout Victoria

Local gambler support

A fac e-t o-face workshop aimed at enhancing the perception of gambling harm and the normalization of teenage gambling

Resources for teachers aimed at linking to a 10-1 2-yea r-old curriculum

Site support program

Gambling field staff such as pubs and hotels
Gambler local support
Training modules for gambling staff to recognize and support customers who have experienced gambling harm

Prevention partnership program

Strategic partnership concept

1.6 Treatment and support services

Community groups that are dangerous, such as immigrants and refugees

Trial implementation of preventive activities
Mainly education and enlightenment activities

Community loyalty program

Groups with risks identified in the region, such as immigrant youth groups and Cald

Public health approach to prevent gambling damage.

A partnership approach to improve the health of the local community and wellby swings.

Figure 1D: Breakdown of budget by business function (2020-21)

Elite Sports Club Partnership

Young players in local sports and their main influence

A wider community, including fans and their families

Foundation contract provider

In order to address the normal sports gambling among young people, enlightenment activities and involvement in the local community that spread important messages of "I love the game, not the victory."

Gambling damage campaign

100 days challenge

"At a live event of sports," Let's love the game

Messaging to recognize gambling damage and to promote potential behavioral changes

In Chapter 3, the Foundation prevention program is evaluated.

The treatment and support service of this facility includes both therapeutic counseling and economic counseling:

The purpose of therapeutic counseling is to support clients by changing gambling thinking, such as understanding the opportunity to gamble and how to suppress impulse.

Economic counseling aims to help improve economic conditions in case gambling falls into economic difficulties.

The core treatment and support services of this facility are as follows.

service

Provided ...

2. Understanding gambling harm

Conclusion

Local Gamblers Help Local Gamblers Help

11 contracted service providers

This chapter discusses:

100 locations across 15 catchments offering face to face treatment counselling and financial counselling
Online Gambling Addiction Help and Gamblers Helpline

2.1 Understanding gambling and gambling harm

Contracted provider with Turning Point

The Foundation's research program

Telephone hotline, online self-help tools, online chat, email and online peer support 24/7

*Peer to peer support services
Experienced gamblers
Non-judgmental and confidential support in the languages of the Chinese community across Victorian communities.
*Services focused on Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and CALD communities

Four locally controlled Aboriginal local health organisations in Melbourne, Bairnsdale, Shepparton and Mildura

Population-level studies on gambling behaviour

Aboriginal Community Gambling Awareness Program

Five established ethnic community organisations
Combined prevention and treatment services in Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic speaking communities
Whether the outreach and preventive program have increased the awareness of Gambles Help Service.
Combined brief case assessment and review of Gamblers Help clients, delivered by qualified mental health professionals.

Note: All services are available throughout Victoria, except those marked with *.

Treatment and support services are described in Chapter 4.

People with mental illness
Youth, especially a man aged 18 to 24 years old
Aboriginal and Tresker Islands
Applying Gambling Research to Program Design
Social and culturally isolated people, such as living in rural areas and rural areas.

Since 2014, the Foundation has awarded 50 research grants. Grant recipients have published 40 peer-reviewed reports on a wide range of topics, including:

Risk factors that contribute to groups with risk of gambling damage
Social and cultural factors that form an attitude, beliefs, and behavior in the population group
The impact of new gambling products including online gambling on young people

Research on defining gambling harm

Gambling integration of the entire area by sports betting

Victorian Gambling and Health Study 2018-2019 includes mobile and landline surveys for 10638 adults in Victoria, which were randomly extracted in 2018-19.

In 2014 and 2018, the Foundation provided funds for gambling behavior in Victoria. 2018-2019 Victorian Gambling Population and Health Study publications use the 2018 survey results. According to this survey, the most harmful gambling form is as follows:
Electronic gambling machine
Online betting
Casino table game

Random game type

In Victoria, most gambling damage (65, 9%) is caused by these products.

It has also been found that gambling addiction is involved in various factors, such as individual situations, environments, and cultural factors. People who are classified as medium gamblers and problematic gamblers have revealed that the following tendency is:

People with mental illness

Research on policy and environmental factors

Youth, especially a man aged 18 to 24 years old

Aboriginal and Tresker Islands

Public policy development

From CALD community

Social and culturally isolated people (including people living in rural and rural areas)

The Foundation has developed and funded programs that meet the needs of these people. for example

Research into treatment and support services

Five ethnic community organizations provide gambler support and improvement programs in Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic.

Four regional medical organizations 4 communit y-based organizations

In the Foundation's school and sports club programs, early intervention is performed for young people.

In 2016, the Foundation published global academic research on gambling damage and its factors. The Foundation used it to form a gambling approach as a public health problem.
The survey has shown that gambling harm varies, not only dealing with problematic gambling, but also affecting more people. The survey results are as follows:

More than 500, 000 Victorian people are gambling every year.

Up to six people, including families and friends, are affected by one who experiences serious gambling addiction.

2.2 Applying research

85 % of gambling addiction in Victoria belongs to the low and moderate risk groups of gambling addiction.

Gambling damage is not limited to financial losses. On e-quarter of the damage caused by gambling is a human relationship problem.

From 2018 to 19, it was found that 70 % of gambling damage had been experienced by people who were not classified as gambling. Figure 2a shows this.

The survey supports the fact that the Trust is shifting to the public approach. Since 2014, the Foundation has increased funding to preventive programs and has expanded from early sites and schoo l-based support programs to a wide range of prevention programs, such as regional prevention partnership programs.

Figure 2A: Patency of the Victoria population that has experienced gambling-related damage by PGSI (2018-19)

Applying stigma research to service design

Source: RockLoff et al (2020), Foundation based on Victorian Population and Health Study 2018-2019.

The purpose of public health research is to identify how government policies have an impact on industrial and social environment, how to prevent harm, and to determine how to reduce the harm that is far more than the treatment of individuals. I am.

The Foundation has outsourced and announced some public health survey projects that explore more environmental and contextual factors that can cause gambling harm. Since 2014, gambling marketing methods have been investigating the impact of risking groups. In response, the Foundation has developed a series of programs aimed at normalizing sports betting among young people.

It is the role of DJC, not the foundation, who advises the government about gambling policy. However, the Foundation can contribute to the better development of public policy by providing evidence to departments such as DJC and the Ministry of Health and Health. This is because the Foundation has its own strengths through research and prevention programs to understand how gambling harm has a wider community.

The Foundation contributed to public investigations and provided advice to the government. This includes advice on gambling management to the Victorian state and the Australian government, and submitted to the Victorian Royal Committee on the domestic violence and mental health.

In June 2019, the Foundation published a report on the effectiveness of policy intervention to minimize alcohol and cigarettes and how this would help gambling harm. In April 2020, the Foundation provided the government a policy opportunity for gambling halls, which resumed the closing of Cobit 19's trends.

The Foundation's treatment and support services configure $ 14. 94 million in 2020-21, and is still the largest funding program. However, since 2015, the Foundation has not given priority to providing funds to research on the effectiveness of various treatments and support approaches.

In 2013, the Foundation determined that research on clinical treatment effects was low in cos t-effectiveness and would not match the new public health approach that focused on prevention. As a result, the Foundation will provide funds only for research limited to treatment services.

This is, for example, you don't know how effective it is:

How effective is the flow of various services overcoming the patient's stigma?

Gamblers Help Service supports people who have health problems.

According to a survey provided by the Foundation, these two issues are extremely important to reduce the seriousness of gambling damage.

As a result, as described in Chapter 4, the Foundation has missed the opportunity to understand the effectiveness of the treatment service.

The Foundation maximizes its value by using funding research and services, such as making programs that focus on the risk factors that affect gambling addiction, for programs and services. Not.

The Foundation has published and distributed surveys through a website and a gamblers aid provider's newsletter. Through the gambling conference, it has succeeded in spreading gambling as a widespread public health problem. For example, in 2018, 203 out of 400 attendees were from a Gamblaz Aid funding organization.

However, the Trust does not believe that reflecting the survey results in the design and provision of the service is the role of the trast. We believe it is the role of individual service providers.

The mission of the foundation is to reduce gambling damage. The Foundation, the only fund provider for Gamblers Aid's services, is responsible for continuously improving the effectiveness of funded programs and services, such as incorporating the best practices revealed through surveys and evaluations. I am taking it.

The Foundation's programs and services are widely targeted for groups revealed by surveys that there is a high risk of gambling harm or onset. However, the relationship between the evidence of the research and the Foundation's program service plan is not always clear. Here are two examples below.

Many people cannot use support services due to gambling social brands. The Foundation provides funds to identifies how to reduce stigma, but has not used this study to reduce the access barriers of people seeking treatment.

In 2015, a survey provided by the Foundation found that only 22%of the gamblers were seeking help. If you are experiencing moderate harm due to gambling, this number will be reduced to 2 %.

Screening for people with co-occurring conditions

A survey provided by the Foundation in 2016 suggests that gamblin g-related stigma is stronger than stigma related to mental illness, drugs and alcohol issues. In other words, it is important to deal with this barrier in order for the Foundation to maximize the possibility of client recovery, effectively and to help clients effectively.

It has been suggested that there are various measures that the Foundation can implement to deal with stigma and improve access to services.

An individual who is exposed to stigma and seeks help.
In other words, for the treatment service ...

But the Foundation ...

3. Preventing gambling harm

Conclusion

You need to feel that it is supported by the first contact with the treatment service. According to a foundation survey, arranging access to treatment within 72 hours after the client first contacts the client's involvement in services.

At the first point of contact, we will be involved in the client and provide as smoothly as possible to the flow of other services.

This chapter discusses:

She has accessed her treatment within 72 hours of her client's first contact and introduced Gamblaz Local Help to be introduced in the design of the service.
Client needs to trust the service provider and build a relationship.
It indicates that they understand the client's experience, such as providing peer support to maintain engagement and continuous support.
Pear support is established as one of the state service options.

3.1 Developing prevention programs

You need to be able to reach out to the right service anytime, anywhere, when you want help.

Designing prevention programs

Provides flexible solutions that can be used 24 hours a day, such as online help and random help.

Gambler regional helplines did not introduce flexible services such as gambler's help lines and gambling help, nor to further develop peer support programs to deal with stigma issues.
Despite the survey results that the relationship with customers is the best within the first 72 hours, the Foundation is within 5 business days after the gambler help line introduces the customer to the gambler regional provider to the provider. We are just asking customers to contact the customer. The agency may have missed the opportunity to solicit customers because the gambler regional helpline provider has not taken any mandatory contact with customers earlier.
The strategic priority of the Foundation in FY2018-21 includes a commitment to formulate strategies to deal with stigma related to gambling addiction. The Foundation initially intended to be a 1 0-year single strategy. In response to the completion of the review of gamblin g-related stigma in 2019, the initiatives for the stigma are the integrated part of the current activities, so we are no longer going to do this.

The Foundation approach integrates existing elements, such as communication, investigating, and providing programs, and continuously dealt with stigma. However, there is no detailed work plan or results from this approach. In other words, it is not possible to conclude whether this approach is effective in reducing stigma and improving support to people who have experienced gambling damage.

Targeting at-risk groups

Trust will also include reduction of stigma as part of the next thre e-year business strategy scheduled to start in July 2021.

The Foundation is testing tools to support the early detection of players who have mental health issues, but are not available in mental health services.

The Foundation provided funds to the development of A.:

In 2014, he developed a sel f-evaluation tool for major medical institutions, and reported that it was useful in 2016.

In 2017, GP and Mental Health Service identified customer problem gambling and developed a short screening tool in 2017 so that it could be introduced to local Gamblaz Help earlier.
The institution evaluated sel f-evaluation tools as beneficial, and promoted at academic societies in 2016 and 2018 through expert development activities. However, the Primary Helscare Service has not tried to support such tools more widely.

The Foundation has developed a number of programs and pilot initiatives aimed at preventing gambling problems. However, because program evaluations focus on outputs rather than outcomes and impacts, the Foundation does not know whether gambling harms have been prevented. This makes it difficult for the Foundation to understand the effectiveness of its programs and identify which pilot initiatives should be expanded.

Addressing risk factors

Furthermore, the Foundation does not have a comprehensive prevention strategy to guide its activities and measure their impact.

The Foundation's approach to prevention program development

Having clear aims and outcome indicators

The effectiveness of prevention programs

A framework for prevention strategies and outcomes
Building community capacity to prevent gambling harms
As mentioned in section 1. 5, the Foundation's prevention programs consist of education and awareness programs targeted at specific environments, such as schools, gambling venues, and sports clubs, as well as population-based campaigns. In addition, Gambler's community organizations and outreach services offer a series of Gambler's Community Prevention Partnership programs to raise awareness of gambling harms to at-risk groups, such as immigrants and CALD communities. In fiscal year 2020-21, the Foundation provided $15 million and $82 million to these programs.
As shown in Figure 1C, public health includes the development and evaluation of interventions. A well-designed prevention program should:
Clearly identify the problem and include risk groups who may or may experience the problem.

Identify risk or protective factors, design prevention programs to influence these factors, and evaluate through program evaluation.

Have clear program objectives and primary outcome measures or surrogates to monitor the expected impact.

With the exception of the program targeting sports betting described in section 1. 5, most of the institution's prevention programs are not aligned with these principles because they do not address underlying risk factors and do not have clear outcome measures.

The institution's program broadly targets risk groups identified in the survey as support.
The prevention partnership program reaches the target groups because it is delivered by community-based organizations already established in the target communities.
Since the start of 2014, the Sporting Club Program has been targeting young adults in sports gambling. It is operated by more than 300 local sports clubs and elite sports clubs, including the Australian Football Association in Victoria and Football Victoria, Victoria. ELITE CLUBS STREAM encourages member sports clubs to reduce sponsored gaming and online gaming machines.

The sporting club program is for young adults, but the evaluation of the 2017 programs needed to be targeted for 12-1 7-yea r-old young people. The Foundation started a re d-designed program in 2019. In redesign, the Foundation incorporated the following proposals:
Target young people (12-17 years old) -Through sports club junior players

With consistent branding and messaging, we improve programming and program integration between local and elite clubs.

Changes can help the sports club program become more integrated, integrated, and strategic to prevent gambling from becoming addictive.
Foundation prevention programs (site support programs, school education programs, preventive partnership programs, etc.) do not clearly indicate how programs are designed to affect specified risks and protection factors. 。 Rather, the purpose is to increase the recognition that gambling is harmful. The 2013 Foundation concludes that general awareness is not effective in changing attitudes and actions in the long term.

Only sports clubs and media campaign programs have a clear purpose to deal with fundamental risk factors. For example, sports betting is strategic considering the growing popularity. The program directly aims to deal with the risk of gambling normal through sports betting.
As described in section 1. 5, the Foundation prevention program varies from:

School education program

3.2 Impact of prevention programs

Site support program

Venue support program

Regional Society Prevention Program for Social vulnerable, including immigrants and refugees (Gamblaz Help for risky communities)

Sports Club Programs for both local sports clubs and elite sports clubs

School education program

Media campaign

There are no clear goals and results indicators in the preventive programs of sports clubs and media campaigns. As a result, the Foundation's program evaluation is more important than the results, and there is little knowledge of whether the Foundation programs and services are effective in preventing or reducing gambling damage.
Figure 3A shows an example of tracking the outcomes of a long-term on-site and school support program.
Figure 3A: Monitoring the results of site support and school education programs

Providing responsible gaming education services to gaming site staff (as of 2017)

Impact of media campaigns

Promoting gambler support services

Referring problem gamblers to self-exclusion programs

Providing training to 452 gambling venues

Conducting 1, 563 login sessions
Challenging the normalization of gambling in young people:

Conducting face-to-face educational workshops

Providing educational materials for educators designed to align with the Year 10-12 curriculum.

127 high schools participating

Conducting 254 workshops

Note: A self-exclusion program is a ban on participation in gambling venues such as pubs, clubs, and bookmakers. If venue staff see someone self-excluded in the gambling area of the venue, they will report this to the program and ask them to leave. Self-exclusion from gambling sites is also possible. Source

The Foundation has evaluated all major prevention programs and activities since 2015.
The 2018 program review found that training site staff improved their awareness and confidence in identifying and working with individuals experiencing gambling problems.
The Foundation has not evaluated whether the program has reduced harm. It is not known whether the venue support program increased the number of referrals to self-exclusion and gamblers aid programs, which are among the program's goals.

The 2019 program review included recommendations to the Foundation, such as:

3.3 Prevention strategy and outcomes framework

Expand online resources in addition to face-to-face

Target younger age groups

Measure program effectiveness through ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

The Foundation intends to update key elements of the program and develop a long-term strategy on youth harm and gambling. However, no plan or timeline was provided for how these recommendations will be implemented.

Attitudes and behaviors are difficult to change with a short media campaign, and the Foundation cannot meet the gambling industry's advertising dollars (Figure 3B).

Next steps

In 2019, the gambling industry spent $70 million promoting gambling at sporting events in Victoria. By comparison, the foundation allocated $2. 62 million for media campaigns during live sports in its 2019-2020 budget.

The Foundation advises that the following is necessary for the change in behavior at the group level:

Lon g-term media activities

3.4 Building community capacity to prevent harm

A wider range of response, including regional programs and services, policies, advocacy, and intervention in other local communities.

But this view may be correct, but without a strategic framework to evaluate the most effective means for behavioral change, the Foundation does not know the best way to achieve a group level change. 。

Figure 3b: Case Study-"Love the Game" Multimedia Campaign
During the 2018 Australian Football League finals, the Foundation conducted the Love The Game media campaign.
The campaign was implemented from August 26 to September 30, 2018, and there were a lot of both TV viewing and sports betting ads.

The Foundation spent $ 887, 896 on the campaign and advertised on television, radio and digital channels. As a result of the evaluation, the following turned out:

Communities of practice and sector development hub

It reached 49 % of Victorian people, 30 to 55, and reached 51 % of the main target (12 to 17 years old).

TV was the main exposure source

"The favorable attitude toward the role of the parent when talking to a child has gradually decreased," so the effect of the campaign message has declined over time.

Source Photo provision: Foundation

The excellent prevention strategy is to understand what the organization, its partner, and the general public understand what their preventive goals, what means to achieve it, and how the preventive programs contribute. Useful.
The evaluation of the 2016 Foundation Prevention Partnership Programs confirmed the need for preventive strategies. The longer the lon g-term prevention strategy will help the Foundation plan to make a plan beyond the fou r-year funding cycle, to provide funds and evaluate the prevention projects in light of the entire prevention target. 。 This is necessary to know if the Foundation's extensive prevention activity has achieved overall goals to prevent gambling damage.

The Foundation does not have a result s-based framework that specifies how to measure whether the preventive program or treatment service affects the risk factors.

The Foundation has been slow to develop an outcomes framework, despite three organizational reviews noting the need for one, one in 2014 and two in 2018. The Foundation advised that measuring the effectiveness of public health interventions, especially from a public health perspective, is difficult. The approach to gambling is relatively new. However, other organizations, such as VicHealth, have evaluated public health approaches to tobacco, alcohol, other drugs, and health promotion for some time.

Furthermore, the Foundation did not have a coordinated process to build lessons learned and best practices from pilots into program development. Without an outcomes-based framework, the Foundation's research output and evaluation practices are driven by budgets and individual staff priorities rather than an overall strategy.

The Foundation acknowledges that its performance management framework is inadequate to evaluate the impact of programs and services in the context of its legislative mission and strategic priorities.

4. Treating gambling harm

Conclusion

The Foundation is in the early stages of improving how it evaluates its Prevention Partnerships program. Foundation funding agreements require recipients to work with the Foundation to develop a program logic that outlines the project's goals and outcomes. The revised evaluation includes a set of standardized questionnaires that measure changes in participants' awareness, attitudes, and behaviors before and after participating in community prevention activities. We applied this approach for the first time to evaluate these prevention partnership programs in August 2020.

While this is a step in the right direction, the Foundation needs to link these short-term program-based outcome measures with mid- to long-term outcome measures to be able to meaningfully measure the full impact of prevention activities. This will allow it to make strategic decisions about which programs to fund or expand.

Since 2014, the Foundation's largest investment in prevention initiatives has been the Community Partnerships prevention program suite. In 2020-2021, the Foundation allocated $52. 32 million, up from $22 million at the start of 2014.

This chapter discusses:

The Foundation's Community Prevention Collaboratives program aims to strengthen the capacity of funding organizations to take action against gambling harms, which is aligned with the principles of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. However, the Foundation has not provided adequate support and has not actively supported capacity building:
guidance
resources
Opportunities for these groups to share lessons learned from similar projects.
The Foundation has invested in around 70 projects since 2014 and has evaluated most of them. However, the Foundation does not have a systematic process for implementing project-level lessons learned to guide further program development. That is, it does not have a clear understanding of what has worked. It also does not know what is needed to build the capacity of community groups to prevent gambling harm.

4.1 Outcome-based performance management

The Foundation does not have an on-the-ground process to identify, share and promote practice improvements in the organizations it funds.

Aboriginal and Tresker Islands
The Foundation’s evaluation of its 2016 and 2018 Community Prevention Partnerships programs recommended a community of practice for prevention.
In late 2019, the Foundation reviewed the purpose of its professional training hubs, known as Sector Development Hubs. The purpose is to increase opportunities for collaboration:

between prevention partners from different programs

between Gambler’s Help therapy staff and financial counselling staff.

4.2 Providing service choices for clients

The Foundation runs a range of activities, including training sessions for grantee partners and quarterly networking forums, to engage and inform them.

In May 2020, the Foundation supported the establishment of two communities of practice on youth and CALD issues. These are open to staff from all grantee organisations and will meet at least monthly. The Foundation has told us that it intends to play a role in observing and supporting how the communities of practice are run. The communities will be organised and run by community organisations.

While the communities of practice provide an opportunity for staff from funded programmes to learn from their peers, only educational institutions can play a role in developing the sector. According to meeting minutes, the community of practice forums were mostly for sharing information. There is a danger that they will be run without strategic direction and, without leadership from educational institutions, will not lead to sector-wide improvements.

The Foundation told us that while it offers professional development opportunities and training, it does not see its role as providing leadership in the field of gambling consultants. It sees this as the role of a peak body or organization for gambling consultants. However, given that there is no peak body and that Gamblers Local Authorities are the primary employers of advisors working in the gambling sector, the Foundation must take a leadership role to accomplish its legislative mandate.

While gambler support providers know they are helping some individuals, the Foundation does not know whether its treatment services are effective overall. This is because it does not have an outcomes-based framework for monitoring the performance of its services.

Responding to client needs

Although the Foundation collects extensive service data, it has not strategically used this data to determine whether services are meeting client needs and whether access has improved.

Furthermore, the Foundation has not used its role as a service funder to drive improvements across the sector. It has funded pilot programs and research on gambling treatment, but has not expanded these efforts statewide.

Outcome-based performance management

Providing service choice for clients
Specific programs for at-risk groups
Support for people with comorbid conditions

Treatment performance and outcomes

Over the past eight years, the Foundation has developed tailored responses to better meet the needs of specific risk groups. These include programs for:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Testing telehealth treatment services

CALD communities

People who experience gambling harm and suffer from comorbid conditions (particularly mental illnesses)

As with prevention services, all treatment programs have output-based outcome measures, such as the number of counselling hours provided. Gamblers Local Assistance has client-level outcome measures, such as indicators of clients' mental health status. However, the response rate for client-based outcome data was low. This suggests that the Foundation has limited ability to understand whether these programs reduce gambling harm.

Integrating peer support from people with lived experience

Although the Foundation collects extensive service data, it has not strategically used this data to inform its service performance. As a result, the facility does not know whether its treatment services are effective overall.

The three main service streams - Help Local, Helpline and Gamblers Gaming - are largely independent of each other. This means that customers cannot easily move between them to get the support that suits their needs.

This is despite the Foundation's 2013 service review indicating the need to integrate the three streams to provide a seamless service to people seeking help.

GH Connect is the Foundation's web-based data entry and reporting system.

In 2015, the Foundation developed GH Connect to provide a centralized view of customer information. Gamblers Helpline and Gamblers Local Helpline can now share customer information. However, Online Gambling Help is a national service that uses a separate system and remains separate from other Gamblers Help services.

The Foundation told us it is working with other states and territories to integrate its Online and Victorian systems.

The agency has not systematically tested the effectiveness of the service streams to meet customer needs.

The Foundation's approach to treatment assumes that clients prefer face-to-face counseling, and that telephone and online services provide brief interventions and information.

However, the Foundation's existing service data suggests that online gambling assistance and the Player Helpline have some advantages over local player assistance:

Providing services

Around the clock

Services in remote areas where face-to-face services are difficult to access

Avoiding strong stigma when interacting with others.

For example, national data for Online Gambling Assistance from 2019-20 shows that 36. 1% of service use occurs outside traditional business hours, between 7pm and midnight.

Gamblers' local services ask customers about their access preferences, such as suitability of business hours and ease of access to local offices. However, these services do not need to ask customers whether they prefer online or telephone services.

We interviewed managers of local help providers for gamblers, and they confirmed that they do not refer customers to such services even when telephone or online services are more suitable, such as customers who need to receive support outside business hours or from remote locations.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, the Foundation supported Gamblaz Help Local and moved face-to-face counseling services to remote medical sector. In addition, some providers changed the service time from 9:00 am to 5 pm from 9:00 am to 5 pm.

During the pandemic period, Gamblers Help services provided more counseling time. Despite the decline in new referrals, the number of counseling hours provided by the Gamblaz Help regional service in the last quarter of 2019-2020 has increased. The Foundation achieved 99 % of the annual goal of counseling time, achieving a record high.

The Foundation will cooperate with the Gamblas Help Service to incorporate remote medicine as standard flexible services. A remote medical practice community will be established in early 2021 to clarify the contents of the service. This is a positive step.

Since 2015, the Foundation has provided funds to some regions of peer support projects and initiatives in some regions, as shown in Fig. 4A. The Foundation missed the opportunity to "scale up" effective programs and provide piercing services throughout the state.

Figure 4A: Overview of the foundation program that provides peer support

A voluntary phone support service provided by Banyule Community Health Services.

Peer Connections Program

It is sold to customers throughout the state, but the service recognition and use are limited.

Fac e-t o-face peer support

In 2018, the Foundation provided funds, and the Banille Community Health Service was conducted on a trial basis.

It starts when a customer contacts the gambling support provider of the Bunnour Regional Health Service.

Gambling support service for Piat cupia
Free and confidential online chat provided by Internet Gambling Help staff
It starts when the client contacts the Internet gambling help and selects the option.
Respin speaker bureau

4.3 Programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and CALD communities

Recruitment, training, and supporting lecturers who talk about the effects of gambling addiction

Implemented in response to the request of the people concerned.

Aboriginal Communities’ Gambling Awareness Program

It is sold throughout the state, but whether it can be used depends on the resource.

Chinese Pier Support Program

Eastern Area Community Health is implemented

Started when the client speaking Chinese contacts Eastern Area Community Health

CALD community services

Three aspects of coins

Link Health and Community A performanc e-like performance sponsored by storytelling.

Paid performances at the request of an interesting organization

It will be sold throughout the state, but it depends on the resource.

Note: The Chinese Pier Support Program is a small program, providing 33 clients in 2019-20. source

4.4 Supporting people with co-occurring conditions

Individuals who have recovered from illness and addiction will work on peer support. It is widely used in the fields of mental health, alcohol and other drugs, and is an effective way to support people under treatment and reduce stigma related to illness and habitual behavior.

The Pair Connections Program began in 2006 as an initiative for the Vanille Community Health Service. The 2015 program evaluation revealed that it was effective for both volunteers that provide support and clients who support the path of recovery. Program evaluators have stated that the program has filled the service gap in continuous support for those who have recovered from gambling damage.

The program has been implemented for a long time, but only a few clients have used the connection piercing program, except for the Buntle Community Health Service.

Since 2018, the Foundation has been promoting connection piercing programs through newsletters and pamphlets. We have requested Banyule Community Health Service to formulate a strategic plan to expand this service to the entire sector, but the expansion is realized without further support as the leadership of the Foundation. It doesn't seem to be. Such an expansion will probably need the following:

Establish a peer control program as a standard option for gambler support services in GH Connect.

Promotion of introduction routes from other gambler support providers to Pia Connections Program

Advertise the positive impact of peer support more widely.
Secure and train more peer support workers.

Prevention activity that adapt to prevent the Avolidin Tes Strait Islands and the Cardo Community of the Counseling & Awarness Foundation.
However, there is no formal referral route between the gambler address, the gambling hel p-o n-line service, and these specialized programs. For this reason, the routes of access and services may be narrowed for Aboriginal, Tresker Islands, and members of the Cald community.

The Foundation's Gambling Enlightenment Program has accessed more Aboriginal and the Tresker Islands to support their support.

Lack of clear referral pathways with mental health services

Within Gambler's Help Local

In 2018-19, 556 Aboriginal and the Tresk Doraic Islands clients accessed the program. In contrast, only 185 clients from the gambler support provider in the state average.

Aborigini and the Tresker Islands can also access online gambling help and player hellpline services. However, there is no question to judge whether the user is a customer of the Aboriginal and the Tresk Doraic Islands, and there is no culturally appropriate counseling in these services for these communities. 。

Integrating Gambler's Help with the state's health and human services

In addition, there is no introduction process from these mainstream services to the adaptation program. One community game enlightenment program providers point out that they have never been referred to online games or helpline services. As a result, the Foundation has missed the opportunity to expand access to the services of Aboriginal and Tresker Islands.

Like the Community Gambling Enlightenment Program, the introduction route between the Cald service and the mainstream Gamblers Helprine service is unclear.

In October 2020, the Foundation announced that it has procured a service provider that provides a game support service integrated in the entire state for the CALD community. For Chinese, Vietnamese and Arab communities, we will continue existing programs.

The new institution provides counseling, community education, and participation in mult i-ethnic communities, but has told us that the Foundation does not have a strategy for the language and ethnic groups supported by the new institution. Rather, it depends on the evaluation of the providers of the needs of local communities, taking into account the balance with available resources.

In addition, the Foundation has not made an overview of how to improve the introduction route between the mainstream gambler support service and the existing community gambler support program.

4.5 Developing specialised gambling mental health support

It is desirable to expand services to more Cald communities, but as described in the 4. 1. Class, the Foundation and the new state hub provider needed clear strategies, introduction routes, and results.

This institution has no consistent or systematic processes to connect clients in a state of other institutions.

In this case, there is a risk that customers will be connected to appropriate support services only when a provider who supports a specific player has a strong relationship with those services. This is different from the "linked" approach with a formal introduction route.

People who have experienced gambling damage are often ...

This means that a player support service is required.	But the Foundation ...	It has a disease that requires treatment and support by medical and welfare services.	Screening the client to see if there is a possibility of a coexistence disease.
There is an introduction route to other support services.	Gamblaz Rocar is guidance on how to identify and support customers with chronic illness.	Develop an introduction route for the entire system with other medical services.	106
In addition, gambling damage often receives medical care and welfare services for new problems such as depression and domestic violence. These treatment sessions can also be used for screening gambling addiction. The Foundation has provided funds for screening tools, but has not been able to provide early support for gambling problems.	The Gamblers Local Assistance's service partner is social services and regional health organizations. In addition to gambling treatment, these organizations provide various services, such as health and hygiene, homeless support, and domestic violence services.	We, whether these providers have gambling problems, examine all new customers, and, regardless of the main reasons for seeking support, internal referral processes to provide care that suits them. I discovered that I had. Therefore, these providers can support clients with the same symptoms in their services.	68
Gamblers Local Help also supports clients with c o-occurrence in cooperation with other regional services. However, the level of integration between these services depends on the strength of the relationship between the local providers.	At the system level, the Foundation does not agree on the route between the gambler regional services, the state health, domestic violence, alcohol and other drug services.	For example, the institution has not exchanged a formal agreement or memorandum between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Family Lords, about how to integrate game services with funding services. In addition, we have not issued guidelines to providers on how to support the transfer customers, such as whether the provider should monitor whether the other service providers have received the referral.	44

Victorian Commission on Gambling and Alcohol Regulation regulates gambling through licensing and compliance activities.

4.6 Managing performance and outcomes

Performance reporting

Without a strong commitment from the Foundation and the Ministry of Health to approach gambling as a public health issue, and one that is often closely linked to mental health issues, it will be difficult to create a consistent approach to integrating services between the local and wider health sectors, or to integrating gambling harm as a public health policy issue more broadly.

The Foundation sees Alfred Health’s mental health and harm reduction programs as central to promoting recognition of gambling in the mental health system (Figure 4B). The Foundation is providing $1. 2 million over three financial years from 2019-20 to 2021-22 to expand Alfred Health programs locally.

While this is a positive step, the Foundation does not have a service model beyond this arrangement that establishes sector-wide referral pathways between the region and existing state mental health services.

As shown in Figure 4B, the Alfred Health program exceeded all output-based performance targets for 2019-20.	Figure 4B: Regional Gamblers Aid Mental Health and Gambling Program Services, Performance, 2019-20
	Program Elements	Objectives
Annual Targets	Performance	Goals Goals Performance
Provide therapeutic, specialist mental health advice to Gamblers Aid clients and improve treatment outcomes.	88 Assessment	Treatment and Clinical Review
Provide brief interventions for clients, including family therapy, review client diagnoses, track client initiation of treatment, and connect clients to other services.	45 treatment and clinical reviews	Educational sessions for local Gamblers Aid

Increasing the capacity of Gamblers Help staff to respond to mental health issues, including peer counselling across the state via video link.

28 sessions

Service data not used to inform service delivery

Source

Clients disengaging with services

The Foundation publishes its performance against three key performance indicators (KPIs):

All local gamblers aid service providers must report the hours of service provided and the timeliness of service. As shown in Figure 4C, in fiscal year 2019-2020, the Foundation achieved all KPI targets within 5% of the target.

Figure 4C: Foundation KPIs: Target vs. Actual, fiscal year 2019-20

KPI Indicator

Victorian Commission on Gambling and Alcohol Regulation regulates gambling through licensing and compliance activities.

Target

Actual

Source of awareness and referrals of Gambler's Help services

Number of hours of treatment and financial counseling provided by local gamblers help services

75 400 hours

74 711 hours

Number of visits to the Foundation's information website

Monitoring treatment outcomes

567 000 visits

662 393 visits

Percentage of customers who received services within 5 days of referral

96%

96, 4%
Source

In response to the COVID-19 restrictions on site access from March 2020, the Foundation allocated more resources to promoting online support. The Foundation predicted an increase in Victorian residents using online gambling as an alternative to in-house gambling. As a result, the Foundation reported a 16. 8% increase in online visits.

The Foundation collects extensive service performance data on Gamblers Help's three main treatment streams, but does not use it strategically to determine whether the service is meeting clients' needs.
It also does not investigate why clients drop out of Gamblers Help's services.
Using the Foundation's data, we found that only a small proportion of customers who contact Gamblers Helpline are referred to Gamblers Local Helpline for further advice.
Figure 4D analyses the further advice routes of people who contacted Gamblers Helpline in 2019-20.

Figure 4D: Clients who contacted Gamblers Helpline and were referred to Gamblers Help Local, 2019-20
Source
It is not uncommon for customers to wish to be anonymous or release through treatment due to the difficulty of changing the stigma or behavior. In 2019-20, the player helpline had a particularly large number of callers (371) from the same jurisdiction area, which chose anonymous and did not proceed to treatment. The Foundation did not actively respond to this. This may indicate that there is a problem in interacting between a player help line and a telephone counselor, or other reasons related to the geographical position of the service. Actively reviewing service performance and data should help the Foundation further identify the issues to be investigated, and as a result, it may be possible to improve the opportunity to improve customer engagement and retention.
The Foundation provides funds to Gamblers Helprine, but has not gathered any results information about how much Gamblaz Helprine is supporting telephone counselors through simple counseling. The Foundation requested Gamblers Helpline to collect information on user satisfaction, requesting a review of calls for the purpose of improving quality and improving customer engagement and retention. Not. This is a serious gap in how the Gamblers Helprine's service understands the effects of customers.

The Foundation has not investigated how many preventive partnership programs have promoted the recognition of gambler support services. The promotion of Gamblers Aid is one of the main goals of these preventive programs.

The local gamblas help and the gamblas help service is how people introduced to the Gamblers Help Service when the first call to the helpline or directly approaches the gamblas help service. Collect information about whether you heard it. Both referral and cognition are useful to measure whether the outlet and preventive program of the educational institution functioned to increase the recognition and referral to the Gamblers Help Service.
However, the local Gamblaz Aid or Gamblaz Aid was not obliged to report the referral and cognitive source, so we told us that the Foundation could not guarantee the quality of the data.

The Foundation has partially dealt with this gap by revising the evaluation approach of the regional prevention program and measuring changes in service knowledge.
The Gamblers Help Foundation developed two sets of client-level outcome measures, but does not strategically analyze the data to determine whether treatment and financial counseling services are effective.
Figure 4E shows the two sets of outcome measures and how the Gamblers Help Agency collects the data.

Victorian Commission on Gambling and Alcohol Regulation regulates gambling through licensing and compliance activities.

Client Outcome Survey (COS)

First published in its current form in 2016

As of July 1, 2016, it has been part of Gamblers Help Local's outcome measures.

Clients are asked a series of questions designed to measure:

Analysing client outcome survey data

Mental health and wellbeing

Impact on work and social interactions

Gambling participation behaviour
Occurrence of gambling thoughts
COS1: At the start of treatment by Gamblers Help counsellors
COS2: After 3 months by Gamblers Helpline staff

COS3: After 6 months by Gamblers Helpline staff

Clients can answer questions such as "none", "sometimes", "sometimes", "most of the time" and "always".

Case objectives and outcomes

First published in April 2018

As of 1 July 2019, this has become a KPI for Gamblers Aid.

Appendix A. Submissions and comments

Gamblers Help local advisor

At the start of treatment, clients state the goals they would like to achieve by participating in treatment.

Responses were received as follows:

At the end of treatment, clients reflect on how they achieved their expected goals.
Source
The Foundation reported that from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, 73. 3% of clients in 4, 301 closed client cases were able to meet or partially meet their desired case outcomes through counseling.
However, no evidence was found that case objectives and outcome measures were clinically validated. In contrast, the assessment methods used in client outcome surveys are clinically validated. Health and community service departments typically use assessments to monitor and evaluate client health outcomes.

Elim Poon - Journalist, Creative Writer

Last modified: 27.08.2024

This report discusses gambling harm, which is any negative consequence caused or made worse by gambling. The Auditor-General's Department. harm from EGMs is most prevalent, the probable cause for that harm and whether activities funded for the purpose of reducing harm were. It is important to go back and read the Auditor-General's Reducing the Harm Caused by Gambling report on the responsible gambling foundation.

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