Gambling Clinic Manchester

A new NHS Northern Gambling Service has launched with its first base in Leeds.

The service is offering treatment and support to the thousands of adults struggling with gambling addiction across the North of England.

Up to 14 new NHS clinics are being opened – starting with the NHS Northern Gambling Service in Leeds this summer, followed by Manchester and Sunderland, according to an NHS announcement. The National Problem Gambling Clinic in London will also offer specialist help for children and young people aged 13 to 25 as part of an expansion which will. The NHS Gambling Service is set to open a new facility in Greater Manchester. The clinic at Salford Quays aims to provide support to thousands more individuals and families across the region who are struggling with gambling addiction and related problems. Gambling Clinic Manchester to play Gambling Clinic Manchester casino free, wherever you are and whenever you want to play on your Smartphone! Mobile casinos operate like normal online casinos, you can choose to play games for free in demo mode, or take advantage of some free spins. The terms and Gambling Clinic Manchester conditions of promotions are meaningful because of the valuable information they contain. For example, taking a bonus without paying attention to the rules can lead to you agreeing to a large wagering requirement and other restrictions. The NHS Northern Gambling Service has established a new gambling addiction clinic based in Manchester as part of its efforts to help more people who are suffering from problem gambling in the northern part of the country. The new base of the service is in Salford Quays.

Consultant Psychologist at Foward Leeds Matthew Gaskell is also the Clinical Lead for the new NHS Northern Gambling Service. He said: “Gambling is causing serious harm to thousands of people across the UK. This includes mental health problems, serious debt, breakdown of relationships, loss of employment, crime, homelessness and sometimes suicide.

“However the chances of recovery from addictions like problem gambling can be very good with proper treatment. I often see people make good sustained recoveries if when they seek help.

“Through my work in mental health and addictions treatment over the years I’ve seen the harms that problem gambling can inflict on people. I’m proud to be involved in this much-needed service. It is vital that we work together to provide a range of accessible and effective services to reduce these harms.”

In Great Britain, around 340,000 people are estimated to have a gambling problem with another two million at risk of developing one. However, fewer than three percent of those affected currently receive treatment or support.

This new NHS service, run by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), is the first NHS gambling service of its kind to launch outside London. Following the opening of its first base in Leeds further bases in Manchester and Sunderland are set to open in early 2020. The service is being funded jointly by NHS England and GambleAware in an agreement worth around £1million a year.

The NHS Northern Gambling Service will provide care for those with severe addictions, and provide treatment and support for people with:
• additional and complex mental health conditions,
• impaired social functioning, and
• those who may present with more risk – such as a risk of suicide.

People will get support through psychological therapies, addiction treatment programmes, mental health treatment, family therapy and peer support from those whose lives have already been adversely affected by gambling. The Service can also offer separate support to family members and carers of those affected by problem gambling.

In Leeds, LYPFT is working with national charity GamCare to provide the Leeds Community Gambling Service. This is a unique and enhanced service providing additional prevention, education and treatment for gambling-related harm for local residents. Supported and hosted by Leeds City Council, the service in Leeds will work across a broad network of partners including the third sector and charities.

Earlier this year, NHS England announced it would be commissioning a network of new services for adults and children across the country as part of commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan. This includes clinics within the NHS Northern Gambling Service (although the Northern Gambling Service will only be treating adults initially). Up to 14 new NHS clinics are being opened, starting with the one in Leeds and followed by centres in Manchester and Sunderland which are part of the same NHS Northern Gambling Service provided by LYPFT.

Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: “Problem gambling is an addiction which ruins lives for thousands of people and their families. I am determined to do what I can to tackle it. No one’s access to support should depend on where they live, so we are expanding treatment outside of London to help addicts get the support they need to turn their lives around.

“As part of our NHS Long Term Plan, we will continue to roll out these specialist services across the country and undo the damage caused by gambling and protect our most vulnerable. This is all possible thanks to this Government’s historic commitment of £33.9bn extra taxpayers’ money – the largest and longest cash settlement in the history of the NHS.”

Claire Murdoch, NHS National Mental Health Director, said: “Without the right help and support, problem gambling can spiral out of control and devastate people’s lives.

“New specialist services like this one, which are part of our NHS Long Term Plan, will undoubtedly make a huge difference. However tackling mental ill health caused by gambling addiction is everyone’s responsibility – especially the betting giants who reap massive profits from this misery and do not do enough to prevent it in the first place.”

Marc Etches, Chief Executive of GambleAware, said: “Our aim is to prevent people getting into problems with their gambling, all the while making sure that those who do develop problems receive fast and effective treatment and support.

“These new services will play a vital role in making sure those with more serious and complex needs linked to gambling will have quick access to free, fast and effective treatment, wherever they may be. We very much look forward to seeing this clinic open and we would welcome the opportunity to potentially replicate this approach in other areas of the UK in the future.”

Tim Miller, Executive Director at the Gambling Commission, said: “We welcome and fully support the launch of the new NHS Northern Gambling Service. Earlier this year we launched the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms, making it clear how essential it is that people across the country have easy access to support and treatment – where and when they need it. This new service helps deliver on that ambition and we look forward to continuing our close work with the NHS and other partners across the health sector.”

Councillor Debra Coupar, Leeds City Council’s Deputy Leader and executive member for communities, said: “Research shows that 10,000 people in Leeds are affected by problem gambling. We know that problem gambling is now a public health issue which can damage people’s lives, significantly affect their health and have a huge impact on families, loved ones, and communities.

Nhs Northern Gambling Clinic Manchester

“Leeds prides itself on being a compassionate city. As a council we recognise the importance of taking a partnership approach to developing services which support vulnerable people and improve the health of the poorest the fastest. These innovative gambling support services are an important step forward in providing the support and treatment which is so desperately needed.”

Contact the NHS Northern Gambling Service on 0300 300 1490 or email: referral.ngs@nhs.net

The NHS England is opening the first gambling clinic specifically for children and young people, aiming to offer support to addicts aged 13 to 25 years old. There are concerns that the rise of online gaming sites, as well as more targeted adverts, are worsening the problem amongst young people.

According to the UK Gambling Commission, 55,000 children in the UK are classed as having a gambling problem. The same study found that 450,000 children are gambling regularly; that is more than those who have drank alcohol, smoked, or taken drugs.

The Clinics

The new clinics are part of an expansion of support for those with an addiction. Currently, specialist face-to-face help has only been available at a clinic in London which is focused on addicts aged 16 and over. The expansion will start with a new clinic specifically for young people opening in London later this year. This will be followed by fourteen other clinics for adult gamblers opening in the near future as well. The first will be in Leeds over the summer, with others in Manchester and Sunderland.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) will likely be the most common therapy at the clinics. Psychoanalyst Anouchka Grose says that problem gambling is linked to “complex individual and social problems – including stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues such as bipolar disorder.” CBT tries to deal with the behaviours by breaking down some of the common beliefs and attitudes around it. For example, a problem gambler might be encouraged to set realistic spending limits for themselves and to change their perception of gambling from a means of making money to a form of entertainment.

While CBT is a popular type of therapy, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has said that there have not been enough large studies yet to be sure how it compares to other treatments.

Is It Enough?

The NHS England Chief Executive, Simon Stevens, has said: “This action shows just how seriously the NHS takes the threat of gambling addiction, even in young people. The links between problem gambling and stress, depression and mental health problems are growing and there are too many stories of lives lost and families destroyed.”However, Stevens also pointed out that while the gambling industry spends £1.5billion on marketing and advertising, it spends just a fraction of that on helping those who have an addiction to gambling. Carolyn Harris, the Labour MP for Swansea East, also thinks that the gambling operators should be doing more to help those who are in trouble due to their products. She said:

“For too long the industry has dismissed problem gambling but now is the time for polluters to pay. This move to help young people afflicted with this problem is welcome. But the industry really needs to be chastised for their open and blatant exploitation of gambling addicts of all ages.”

Gambling Clinic Manchester Nj

Liz Ritchie from the charity Gambling with Lives said that the organisation applauded the expansion but also that the plans were not enough to deal with the problem. Her statement said: “We are on the brink of an epidemic fuelled by industrialised gambling and addicts are 15 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. Increased voluntary contributions proposed by some gambling companies will not provide the sustained independent funding needed by the NHS. People are dying – bereaved families call on the government to introduce a mandatory levy on the industry’s £14.5bn profits a year.

Grose also believes that while the clinics are a positive step, they are not enough: “It’s all very sensible and is surely a helpful starting point. But it fails to address the unscrupulousness of an industry that targets children by normalising risky practices, couching bets in kid-friendly video games or the deeper mental processes that might lead a person to take serious risks with their own or their family’s money and possessions.”

Educating Children

While the clinics are a great start, many people feel that part of the problem is the lack of education that children and young people receive about the dangers of gambling. Mike Kenwood, director of development at GamCare charity, believes that this would make a difference: “In school you would have been more likely to receive education and awareness sessions around things like drugs and alcohol, safe sex, healthy eating in PSHE [Personal, Social, Health and Economic education] lessons. There is a broader agenda which address all those things, but gambling is missing from it.”

Last year, 650 teenagers took part in trial lessons designed to raise awareness of the risks of gambling among school-age children. The lessons were developed by thinktank Demos and were meant to encourage pupils to weigh up risks, identify manipulative behaviour by gambling companies, learn about managing impulses, and help others experiencing gambling problems.

Catherine, a year 11 student at St Joseph’s Catholic School who took part, said that she felt that the risks of gambling should be more widely publicised, as they are with smoking. “People that smoke know it’s a danger. It’s on the packet. It says that it kills. It’s not disguised. It’s quite obvious. […] You never see on a lottery ticket saying, ‘This could lead to poverty.’”

The trial lessons seemed to have a positive impact on the pupils who took part. One student remarked, “It was very helpful because it prepared us for later life and the possibility of it happening in our lives or in our families’ lives and help us deal with it and stop it happening.” Another said, “The gambling module didn’t control the pupils’ opinions on the subject, it allowed the pupils to form their own ideas rather than have the teacher tell them how it is.”