Scotland Reducing Gambling Harms – opportunity for people with lived experience

Join the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme to shape action to reduce gambling harms in Scotland.

The ALLIANCE Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme are recruiting people with lived experience to help shape action to reduce gambling harms in Scotland by sharing their expertise and priorities.

Gambling-related harms are the adverse impacts from gambling on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities, and society. This includes financial, employment, and relationship issues, physical and mental health problems, criminal activity, and in the most severe cases suicide as a direct result of gambling harm.

People can experience gambling harms to different degrees, and the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme are interested in speaking to anyone who feels they have experienced harm as result of their own, or a loved one’s gambling.

Working with people with lived experience, the programme helps to identify key areas of importance in reducing gambling harms in Scotland. These key areas help shape the focus for the Scottish Implementation Group of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms (this link will take you away from our website) and put the voice of people affected by gambling harms at the heart of action to reduce those harms.

The programme also provides people with lived experience with new perspectives, advice and information on other matters related to gambling harm. For example, shaping awareness raising campaigns and helping inform the focus of future research on gambling harm.

How can you get involved?

There are lots of ways to be involved and help shape gambling harms policy, practice and research in Scotland. You can:

Become a Forum Member

We support a forum of people with lived experience of gambling harms to come together on a regular basis with policy and decisions makers in Scotland. Forum Members commit to attending regular, evening meetings roughly every six weeks for one and a half hours.

Contribute on an individual basis

For people who are unable to commit to the regularity of the Forum, we are able to speak to people on a more ad hoc basis as topics or opportunities they are passionate about arise.

We recognise that people have different comfort levels when it comes to discussing gambling harms, and individuals will have different preferences when it comes to how they’d like to be involved. We are more than happy to be flexible and to work with people in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them.

What are the benefits of being involved in programme activities?

• Networking opportunities and building relationships with others affected by gambling harm as well as people who work within health and social care.
• Developing new skills via training or attending events and conferences.
• Contribute positively to society.
• Contribute to influencing gambling policy.
• Positive mental health benefits from volunteering, including increased confidence and feelings of self-worth.
• For many of those with lived experience, contributing to systems change is an important part of their life and contributes to their recovery.
• Work experience which can be included in CVs.

For more information, please see the programme’s recruitment advert below. It is particularly important to hear the views and experiences of a diverse range of people to inform policy change.

If you would like to be involved with the Scotland Reducing Gambling Harm programme, please express your interest via email at gamblingharm@alliance-scotland.org.uk or call 0141 404 0231 and ask for Hannah Gunn/Georgina Charlton.

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