The Process

After you are referred to gambling minds, a member of the team will contact you to arrange an appointment. The initial meeting will involve a mental health and gambling assessment as these issues often co-exist.  We will work with you and your current treatment providers to complete a detailed assessment and provide treatment recommendations. gambling minds has the capacity to offer some short-term interventions that aim to compliment your current treatment.

Gambling minds provides a confidential and empathic approach as people often feel anxious when talking about their difficulties. We will help you to begin the conversation and allow you space to express your feelings and needs.

We work in a variety of creative ways to support workers and clients. 

We provide the following services with an emphasis on sustainable treatment planning:

• Mental health and gambling harm assessment
• Short-term treatment for co-occurring gambling and mental health difficulties including psychological, pharmacological and social interventions
• Online education and live supervision

We will see clients with the referrer where possible.

Support for clinicians and counsellors

We also provide support for clinicians and counsellors such as:

• Peer consultation
• Individual secondary consultation
• Rural outreach clinics and Telehealth assessments
• Community development and collaboration
• Training for psychiatric registrars

The team

Our team has a range of skilled health professionals including:

• Psychiatrists and psychiatric registrar
• Social workers
• Occupation therapists
• Family therapists
• Psychiatric nurse
• Neuropsychologist

Research projects

The following research projects are currently underway:

• Sensory profiles - does knowing your sensory profile enhance gambling recovery?
• Exposure therapy - effectiveness of running an exposure therapy group via video conference
• The GHOST project (Gambling Harm Online Service & Training) - enhancing capacity of Victorian psychiatrists and registrars to assess and manage patients with co-existing mental health and gambling harms

Rural clinics

We provide service to rural and remote Victoria via a telehealth platform. Face to face clinics also can be arranged periodically. 

The aim is to promote skill development, build capacity and promote collaboration between Gambler's Help, mental health and medical services.

Rural clinics are designed to meet the unique needs of the region and may involve a mixture of clinical assessments, consultation and brief education sessions.

Referrals

Being a secondary support service, our program can only accept referrals from primary service providers such as Gambler's Help counsellors, GPs and mental health clinicians.