The Southern Gambling Service: Innovation in Care and Research
The NHS Southern Gambling Service (SGS) provides evidence-based assessment and treatment for people affected by gambling-related harms across Southern England. By integrating research, education, and quality improvement, the service not only delivers care for individuals and their families but also develops and shares innovative approaches nationally. From workshops and training days to policy contributions and clinical research, the SGS is shaping best practice and building a strong evidence base for gambling disorder treatment.
The NHS Southern Gambling Service (SGS), based within Hampshire and IOW Healthcare NHSFT provides evidence-based digital assessment and treatment for people affected by gambling-related harms across six Integrated Care Board (ICB) territories covering Southern England. This innovative service links research, quality improvement, and education to grow the service and support other services around the country with a strong evidence base for treatment. The service receives around 480 referrals per year. There are strong links with the charity GAMFAM, who are working alongside the service to establish a new support pathway for family members of people affected by gambling disorder. This is a project funded by the NIHR (Interview with Sam Chamberlain, Southern Gambling Service).
Links between education and research include a new treatment workshop developed by Dr. Mat King, Clinical Lead, and colleagues, delivered to others working in this field across the region. This showed that the treatment is associated with substantial improvements in gambling symptoms and quality of life. The workshop is being further enhanced via a grant from Wessex Health Partners, supported by our Clinical Research Fellow Dr. Jeremy Solly – this is providing data to address barriers and increase engagement with the public in terms of our research and service improvement activities. The team are shortly delivering a national NHS training day on gambling-related harms. The training day is designed for clinicians, allied health professionals, GPs, and trainees who would like to learn more about how to identify and support people affected by gambling-related harms.
The team are influencing national and local policy and guidelines:
Prof. Chamberlain, SGS Service Director, gave evidence to Parliament about gambling-related harms (committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15687/html/).
Clinical Lead Dr. Konstantinos Ioannidis and Prof. Chamberlain gave evidence to Southampton City Council's Inquiry into Gambling-Related Harms (Reducing Gambling-Related Harms in Southampton).
The team led on national prescribing guidelines for gambling disorder, which feature in the new gambling NICE Guidelines. A Clinical Research Fellow, Dr. Ioannidis, has recently published the first comprehensive network meta-analysis of medication treatments for the condition, further enhancing the evidence base for gambling disorder pharmacology treatments.
The team also link quality improvement activities to their ongoing improvement and innovation. These have included projects on alcohol assessment, geospatial determinants of gambling, and the link between gambling and physical health, all of which are now being presented at international conferences - showcasing the ongoing fostering of fruitful collaborations between the SGS, postgraduate training, UoS, and undergraduate education.