UK gambling support organisation GamCare has reported a 6% rise in the number of women seeking help with gambling over the previous year.
The charity, which provides training to healthcare organizations, believes that its Women's Program is likely to have had a beneficial impact on the increase in the number of women seeking assistance.
GamCare believes that with up to one million women at risk of gambling damage on UK online casinos, it is critical that they have access to help. The charity points to evidence showing women are disproportionately affected by gambling-related consequences such as financial, relational, and mental health problems.
According to an independent assessment study provided by inFocus Consulting, 85 percent of GamCare Women's Programme participants had a better awareness of gambling-related damage as a result of participating. This includes learning how to identify women who are in need of gambling-related assistance.
In the last year, GamCare has provided training to 918 healthcare organizations around the United Kingdom. According to the organization, 97 percent of healthcare professionals recognized how problem gambling may affect women, and 96 percent said they were better able to identify a woman who was suffering from gaming-related problems as a result of the training they received.
According to GamCare, 81 percent of healthcare professionals were effective in identifying all risk factors related with problem gambling in women prior to receiving the training. Following the end of training, this figure increased to 87 percent.
Women's gambling concerns are still receiving attention, according to one GamCare staff member, and the organization hopes to see an improvement in these numbers in the near future.
“I think it's just getting out there in public. When we look at mental health, it’s screamed about everywhere, but nobody says that sometimes the causation of these mental health problems might be gambling... particularly when it comes to women.”
