Gambling harms – new Sheffield Strategy and NICE Guideline

Sheffield has a new Gambling Harms Prevention Strategy. The 10 year strategy was co-produced by Council officers, NHS staff including clinicians, colleagues from the community and voluntary sector and people with lived experience of gambling harms including gambling-related suicide.

Gambling harms are often a ‘hidden harm’ and one of the strategy’s five priorities is ‘Improving identification and recognition of gambling harms.’ The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities estimate that there are 19,480 adults in Sheffield who may benefit from treatment and support for the harms from gambling

A new NICE guideline NG248 Gambling-related harms: identification, assessment and management suggests that health and social care professionals, and others, consider routinely asking service users aged 18+ two questions: ‘Do you gamble?’ followed by ‘Are you worried about your own or another person’s gambling?’
Where people respond ‘yes’ to the second question, in Sheffield the NHS Northern Gambling Service (www.northerngamblingservices.nhs.uk) is recommended as the first line of treatment and support. This service supports both adults who gamble and affected others such as family members.