The UK’s gambling charity GambleAware has partnered with Citizens Advice Scotland to launch a new support service.
GambleAware has partnered up with Citizens Advice Scotland to roll out a new support service aimed at helping debt advisors and other frontline workers better understand, prevent and crackdown on gambling-related harm.
The new support scheme
The Gambling Support Service will run between 2020 and 2022 and work alongside a similar programme operated in partnership with Citizens Advice England and Wales.
The new gambling support service will provide training to staff to provide them with the necessary tools to identify and support people who may be suffering from gambling-related harms.
In its announcement, GambleAware said the new service will allow t workers to direct those who are at risk to available specialist help.
The training will be made available to workers in professions who may come across people suffering from gambling harm. This can include local authority staff, youth workers, healthcare staff and debt advisors.
The new scheme will run across the Airdrie, Inverness, South West Aberdeenshire and West Lothian regions in Scotland.
This new scheme, which was formed in September 2018, saw GambleAware and Citizens Advice pledge £1.5m to deliver training to debt advisors to help them identify and support people suffering from gambling-related harms.
GambleAware identifies gaps in support system
The launch of the new support service in Scotland comes after the gambling charity revealed last month that the multi-level setup of its treatment and support systems resulted in major knowledge gaps.
In the report, it was revealed that as the charity’s structure has grown organically, rather than being specifically designed via a set structure, which had an impact on its overall functioning. This made collaboration between each component of the charity more difficult to achieve.
