The 2011 Gunawirra initiative at promote the prevention or control of harmful gambling.

ADDICTION TO GAMBLING AMONG ABORIGINAL WOMEN:

This year Gunawirra intends to undertake research that it hopes will uncover the “hidden” or “secret” gambling problems in the Blacktown, Liverpool and Redfern /Marrickville Suburbs. Simple questionnaires will be personally asked of our mothers and women in the area about their gambling habits and those of their men. Aboriginal elders in the community have now been engaged to do this as they are closer to their communities and aware of the problems. The rationale is our awareness that so many of the women who are welcomed and given equal status in the clubs are actually being lured to “press”(Aboriginal slang for poker machine playing). This is seen as an innocent bit of relaxation, but the Aboriginal community is becoming aware of the problems. A remark like, “She presses! Don’t let her near the money!” is common everyday language. Children are missing out on time with their mother, and missing out on money for their food. The idea that they are going to strike it rich and “save” their family is a continuing theme, but mostly it is a distraction from the realities and harshness of everyday lives. “We live for the day of the big win.” one mother of four said.

• Gunawirra hopes from this research to create
• A special gambling counselling Unit
• Support from our network of psychiatrists
• Professionals to home visit and work with this problem directly.
• Aboriginal Community Involvement. We have Aboriginal community support for this project and part of the treatment will be the involvement of Aboriginal community to help the addicted person. The ‘Take Two’ program of a mentoring process by close family or friend will be used and built into the community by the Aboriginal elders themselves.

Progress to date:

We have engaged a specialist in gambling to head this group. Work has begun on the research and the project should be active out of that research in the second half of 2011 or the early half of 2012.

A professional educative program is already under way and 70 Aboriginal and non Aboriginal health professionals are enrolled for our first session on the 16th of February. The clubs themselves are concerned about problem gambling and the space to run this seminar is donated by the Burwood RSL.