GamCare notes 6% increase in number of women seeking gambling support
The UK gambling support charity GamCare has detailed a 6% increase in the number of women accessing gambling support in the UK over the last year.
The charity, which trains healthcare organisations, feels its GamCare Women’s Programme is likely to have positively contributed to increased numbers of women coming forward for support.
With up to one million women at risk of gambling harm in the UK, GamCare feels it is vital women have access to support. The charity cites claims that women may be disproportionately affected by gambling-related harms, including financial, relationship and mental health issues.
An independent evaluation report produced by inFocus Consulting found that 85% of GamCare Women’s Programme participants improved their understanding of gambling-related harm. This included how to best identify women in need of gambling-related support.
GamCare has delivered training to 918 healthcare organisations across the UK in the last year. The charity claims 97% of healthcare professionals understood how problem gambling can impact women, with 96% claiming they could better identify a woman suffering from gambling-related harms following training.
GamCare notes that before training, 81% of healthcare professionals successfully identified all risk factors associated with problem gambling in women. This jumped to 87% following the completion of training.
And GamCare hopes to see these figures improve, with one GamCare staff member feeling awareness of women’s gambling issues is still garnering attention.
They said: “I think it’s just getting out there in public. When we look at mental health, it’s screamed about everywhere, but nobody says that sometimes the causation of these mental health problems might be gambling… particularly when it comes to women.”
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