James Callaway of the Gambling Support Service is delivering training across the North West from his base at Citizens Advice Wirral. The Gambling Support Service is funded by Gamble Aware and one of its main aims is to deliver free training and awareness sessions to frontline staff and volunteers on the subject of gambling harms.
It is estimated there are 350,000 problem gamblers in the UK and some research suggests that the current pandemic has heightened the gambling activities for those who were already taking part. We also suggest that no matter a person’s age, gender, health issue everyone is at risk of becoming a problem gambler.
The free training sessions cover a background to gambling looking at why people gamble and who are the key stakeholders. We also cover the different ways gambling can affect people and how we can identify problem gamblers in our day to day work. Finally we got through the specialist support that is available.
Each session lasts just over an hour and is currently delivered remotely using Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. We can also arrange shorter sessions to give an overview of the service.
