Illawarra Gambling Recovery Program

In July, 1999 Illawarra Area Health Service received twelve months funding from the CCBF to commence a counselling service for people with gambling problems in the Illawarra. The service was specifically funded to develop a group treatment program for problem gamblers and their families, partners and/or friends which would be available to other gambling counselling agencies throughout the State. As well, additional CCBF funding was made available to Community Health to offer group treatment programs to multicultural, including Koori, communities where gambling was identified by those communities as a problem, and the community wanted some help to address it. This service was set up to complement existing gambling counselling services in the Illawarra by providing these group programs and to target specific populations who might not access mainstream counselling services.

Although twelve months was far too short to offer all of the multicultural and Koori communities in the Illawarra a gambling recovery program, it was pleasing to see that in 1999-2000 we were able to run two group programs for the broader English speaking community in Wollongong, and a group program each for one of the non-English speaking background communities and the Koori community in Wollongong. The Wollongong Filipino community decided to accept the offer of a gambling recovery program, not because they have any greater incidence of gambling problems in their community, but mainly for two important reasons.

Firstly, the Filipino community had just undertaken a gambling awareness/education project with the Bulli Resources Centre, funded by the CCBF, which had raised the community’s general level of awareness about gambling issues in Australia and in local communities. Through focus groups and community forums, the Filipino community in Wollongong was able to discuss gambling issues in an educative and supportive way, rather than as a hidden problem, and was able to encourage those with a gambling problem to feel supported in seeking help through the subsequent recovery program. As the recent GAMECS report on gambling in multicultural communities pointed out, social stigma around gambling was a major constraint for many communities, and a gambling education project such as this allows these communities to have personal involvement and control of the process and to develop it in a culturally appropriate and sensitive way.

Secondly, and equally important was the commitment and enthusiasm of Filipino community workers in Wollongong for providing a gambling recovery program and the availability and expertise of a bilingual counsellor in Wollongong to co-facilitate the recovery program. In this regard, the Transcultural Mental Health Centre in Sydney may be able to provide the names of other bilingual counsellors who may be interested in co-facilitating a gambling recovery group. It is also great to hear that they are employing someone to coordinate gambling services for their centre.

A similar experience occurred with the Koori gambling recovery program where the availability, expertise and commitment of Aboriginal Community Health Workers was essential for encouraging and educating the community about gambling issues and developing a culturally sensitive gambling recovery program, which we are pleased to say will be further developed, so that we can take it to other Koori communities in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven.

The success of both of these programs and the launch last year of the facilitators’ manuals for group programs has paved the way for further CCBF funding (this time for two years) which has seen Community Health extend its problem gambling service to the Shoalhaven (welcome, Kate) so that we can continue to offer a service to other NESB and Koori communities along the South Coast. This additional funding will also see the development of group programs for people with an intellectual disability and gambling problems, for the families / partners of problem gamblers who are not receiving treatment, and to coordinate a gambling issues forum on the South Coast to bring together industry and counselling agencies to discuss ways of working together.

If you would like any information about any of these programs or the facilitators’ manuals for a group problem gambling program please contact Brian Corless at Warrawong Community Health Centre on 42740281, or Kate Roberts at Nowra Community Health Centre on 44228111.

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