NHS Gambling Service Opens New Treatment Clinic In Manchester
The NHS Gambling Service is set to open a brand new gambling treatment clinic in Manchester.
The brand new facility will be based in Salford Quays and is expected to reach thousands of vulnerable people across the North West of England. This new clinic will have experts who will advise and deal with those suffering from mental health issues including gambling addiction. Although the clinic will only treat adults initially, it will later treat and service children too.
According to ITV, the new clinic is the latest in the NHS Northern Gambling Service which opened its first clinic in September 2019 in Leeds, the first clinic to be based outside of London. It’s part of the government’s NHS Long Term Plan commitment to tackle gambling addiction throughout the country.
Consultant Psychologist Matthew Gaskell, the Clinic Lead at the new facility, told ITV: “Gambling addiction is a new public health crisis. I’ve seen the harms that problem gambling can cause people. However, the chances of recovery from addictions like problem gambling can be very good with proper treatment.”
It’s been reported that around 224,000 adults in England (Around 0.4% of the population) have been classed as higher risk problem gamblers while an additional two million (Around 3.6% of the population) have been classed as “at risk” of developing an addiction. Despite this, less than 3% of those currently receive treatment or support.
New Gambling Clinics
Thew NHS Long Term Plan for problem gambling was announced last June where the NHS revealed it was commissioning new clinics and treatment services for both children and adults across the UK. Since then, new clinics have opened in Leeds and Sunderland, with the latest now being Manchester and several more planned.
At the new clinics, people can receive support for various mental health issues through therapy, addiction treatment programmes, mental health treatments, family therapy, and peer support. The services will be open to people whose lives have been affected by gambling as well as family members or carers of victims of gambling addiction.
In addition to the clinic based outside of London, the NHS also launched its first-ever gambling clinic for children in London last summer. The facility, known as the National Problem Gambling Clinic in London, offers specialist treatment to children and young persons between the ages of 13 and 25.
Additional gambling clinics are set to follow the recent openings in Leeds, Sunderland, and Manchester. It’s unclear where in the UK the following clinics will be based in and when they will open. But you can expect to hear more news of the facilities in the months to come.