Gambler’s Help Southern (GHS) Community Education has made significant changes in its approach to community education during 2004 and shall continue to do so in 2005.
When GHS community education first set out in 1995 the principal objectives were to educate about of problem gambling in our community and to inform people about the existence of a free counselling service for people negatively affected by gambling. Topics covered included strategies to minimise any possible harm, the signs that could indicate a growing problem, how to access help as well as general information about gambling in Victoria such as the prevalence of gambling problems, how gambling problems develop and how much Victorians spend. All this information is still interesting and useful but over the years gambling has generally become much more topical and through media, community forums, local government policies and Gambler’s Help programs, people have become more aware of problem gambling and better informed of the impacts it has on individuals and the community. In the southern region people commonly experience waiting lists for counselling. This reflects a lack of adequate counselling resources to cater for the demand and GHS community education whilst acknowledging a need for more counselling resources does not wish to add to a waiting list by focusing on the promotion of the counselling services.
The new approach that the community education team has taken continues to take a harm minimization focus. We maintain our response to community requests for education and information sessions, but overall the approach is more directed at the prevention end of the harm minimization scale. The "Exercising a Wiser Choice" project is an example of this where local older women are encouraged to stay healthy, to exercise and socialise in order to reduce their risk of developing an unhealthy coping strategy such as gambling. Work has also been done with other agencies through Glen Eira South Agency Network (GESAN) to develop local resources in response to the priority issue of depression. GHS community education was also involved with the development of the youth ‘Gpack’ which was distributed to schools and youth agencies, again the approach being the prevention of gambling related problems through acknowledgement of youth gambling and the provision of helpful information.
In an attempt to change the gambling environment to help protect people from gambling problems, community education staff work with gambling industry stakeholders to encourage the development of ‘consumer protection’ policies. Furthermore there has been liaison with local governments in the development of gambling policies and our local government forum held in June 2004 engaged representatives from six local councils.
There are many ways to convey key gambling harm reduction messages to groups in the community. For example, the documenting and recording of people’s stories about their own problematic gambling experiences provides a valuable insight into gambling issues and pitfalls.
Our two CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) community education staff members are primarily working with Chinese and South East Asian communities. Cambodian and Vietnamese women’s groups have been successful in really engaging the participants, helping them develop friendship and support networks which are very important harm prevention strategies. Our Chinese speaking community educator is actively involved in the Melbourne metropolitan Chinese Gambling Concern group preparing materials for the Chinese New Year festival as part of a harm minimisation approach.
Along the lines of a consumer protection approach, GHS community education supports the establishment of sound, protective government, council and industry gambling policies, community knowledge of the chances of winning (losing) and how gambling (e.g. poker machines) works and public awareness of the benefits of staying socially connected and engaged with the community rather than isolated and bored. Also, in acknowledgement of the fact that some people choose not to attend counselling, the development of a ‘self help’ social marketing strategy to assist people to access information and strategies to deal with their gambling problem has been a valuable project in the first half of 2005.
