GamCare has noted a significant improvement in working adults’ understanding of gambling-related harm and potential negative effects of gambling in the United Kingdom. The organization said that 85% of the participants in its Women’s Program seminars have been able to better understand these negative consequences.
GamCare Reports Strong Results from Training
The idea of the program is to improve career professionals’ knowledge on how they can assist female employees at work if they saw them experience distress or gambling-related harm. By training employees, GamCare is able to raise awareness about the issue and ensure that individuals are actively looking to assist their colleagues.
A report has been prepared in collaboration with inFocus Consulting which followed the progress by the charity. GamCare has successfully reached out to 918 organizations in the United Kingdom and offered training, improving understanding of the pitfalls of gambling.
The second year of the program has proven to be far more successful. The 85% of professionals who grasped the concept was a significant increase from the 60% in the first year of the program. GamCare has improved training practices since last year, enabling it to better present the program and achieve the results it sought.
Another 97% of professionals acknowledged that the training had led to them better understanding of how problem gambling may impact their female colleagues. Almost all of these people, some 96%, confirmed that they now knew how to respond if they saw a colleague suffering from problem gambling and help them seek assistance through dedicated service.
GamCare has decided to engage with this new initiative in order to highlight the pernicious consequences that gambling may have on women. The organization spoke about financial, mental health, and relationship hardships suffered by female gamblers as a result of excessive gambling.
As Women Gamblers Increase, So Does Understanding
The charity confirmed that there was a 6% increase in the overall number of women who accessed gambling services and products in the 12 months leading up to the study. Commenting on the program and its findings, GamCare chief executive Anna Hemmings noted:
“We’re encouraged to see improved access for women using GamCare’s treatment and support services, and increased reach in our professional’s training, which delivers an improved understanding of how gambling harm impacts women.”
GamCare chief executive Anna Hemmings
Hemmings noted that for many women, stigma was one of the reasons why they would not seek to receive help personally. That is why training others who can detect gambling harms and advise action is a bid to reduce that stigma and help women who are experiencing potentially damaging conditions. “Over the next year, we want to continue to raise awareness of how gambling harm affects women and to signpost the gambling support services available for women,” Hemmings noted.