News and media releases: mental health

Gambling Harm Awareness Week (19–25 October), which this year coincides with AFL Grand Final week, was today launched at a virtual event highlighting the risks sports betting can pose to young men, including footy players.

Seven new research projects have been awarded funding under the annual Grants for Gambling Research Program (Round 10) administered by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. The projects have...

A professional development workshop for financial counsellors considered ways to manage challenging client behaviours while also negotiating complex financial arrangements.

New research into the prevalence of gambling among adolescents estimates that 25,600 students in Victoria aged 12–17 years may be spending $2.9 million on gambling each year, despite being under the age at which Australians can legally gamble. Released to coincide with Gambling Harm Awareness Week (7–13 October), the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation-funded research found 31 per cent of kids in the study had gambled at some point in the past – and six per cent had gambled in the previous 30 days.

Alfred Health’s Mental Health and Gambling Program will receive a $1.2 million funding boost over three years from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. This will strengthen the model of care for clients and provide them with better health outcomes.

The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation today released a research report that shows problem gambling prevalence in gamblers who attended mental health services was eight times higher than in the Victorian general population, with one in two gamblers experiencing some level of gambling harm.

Financial Counselling Australia has released a new report, Problem Gambling Financial Counselling: Survey and Case Studies. The report is based on two surveys of specialist problem gambling financial counselling agencies conducted in late 2015.

Projects targeting young people, seniors, Vietnamese families, apprentices, at-risk gamblers and Chinese restaurant workers are being funded under a new program to prevent problem gambling.

Research highlighting the multiple health and social problems that people with gambling problems can experience is the focus of a new paper from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.

New research indicates people with gambling problems are more likely than recreational gamblers to increase their gambling activity in response to challenging life situations such as financial concerns, physical illness, relationship or family stress, work problems and mental health issues.