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1. Introduction:
As part of the work programme being delivered by Gambling Harm UK (GHUK) within the Mid & South Essex Integrated Care System, some funding was obtained from the Essex Community Foundation Trust to enable GHUK to run preventing gambling harm awareness workshops for young people. This funding was awarded from the Mid and South Essex Mental Health 'Inequalities' Programme.
As with previous young people workshops delivered by GHUK, the aim of these is to increase students understanding of the risks associated with gambling, and to increase their awareness of how to respond in circumstances of experiencing or noticing gambling harm.
In recognition of past feedback from students and with the intention of giving an increased focus around potential risks of impact on mental health, GHUK produced an updated awareness programme for this group of sessions.
This programme has now been delivered to three schools and one college reaching over 350 young people during the last month and the feedback from those sixth form and college students who have completed our evaluation questionnaires has been extremely positive.
2. Feedback Results
Those attending our sessions are asked to complete a pre and post evaluation survey as shown below. Students are advised these are not compulsory and are non-identifiable. To date 295 evaluation questionnaires have been returned from the four sessions delivered.
The surveys asks students to grade their pre and post session understanding against the following six domains using a five point scale .
Q1. “I understand what gambling related harm is”
Q2. “I am aware of things that increase the chance of someone suffering gambling harm”
Q3. “I can describe ways to help someone if their gambling behaviour worried me”
Q4. “I would know where to go to talk about problems to do with gambling”
Q5. “I am aware of skills and tools that can be used to prevent gambling harm”
Q6. “I understand the techniques used by the gambling industry to persuade people to gamble”
The average pre workshop scale score was: Q1 3.74; Q2 3.51; Q3: 2.89; Q4 2.86: Q5 2.74 & Q6. 3.60
The average post workshop scale score was: Q1. 4.39; Q2. 4.30; Q3 4.10; Q4 4.13; Q5. 4.10 & Q6. 4.43
This feedback shows an increase in awareness across all the 6 domains our training is focused around. The changes in awareness levels vary across the 6 domains, with largest change occurring in the “I am aware of skills and tools that can be used to prevent gambling harm” domain which increased from 2.86 to 4.13..
When the students were asked if they felt more informed about risks of gambling harm following the session 94% responded yes.
Summary:
The results from the first four of GHUK’s new young people workshops delivered in Chelmsford and Braintree indicate that students have valued these sessions. They have reported that their awareness levels have increased around risks of gambling harm and that they now feel better informed around how to respond in circumstances of experiencing or noticing gambling harm.
Finally, when students were asked “After attending this workshop, do you feel it would be helpful for other people their age” 87% responded yes.
GHUK looks forward to delivering further workshops over coming weeks. We would like to thank those schools, Writtle College and Anglia Ruskin University who have responded to our offer to run our new awareness programme and for enabling these sessions to be booked.
John Gilham
CEO
Gambling Harm UK