Annual Report 2012 - Lifeline Darling Downs

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Gambling Help Lifeline Darling Downs & South West Queensland Ltd 2012 Annual Report by Gayle Sainsbury, Senior Practitioner Cluster 2 & Kate Greener, Manager State Funding The Gambling Help Program responds to the immediate needs of individuals and families who have been adversely affected by gambling through the provision of counselling and referral to other support services. This program also increases the level of community awareness by providing community education through information and networking sessions about the adverse consequences and risk of harm associated with gambling in order to minimize the risk and prevalence and incidence of problem gambling. The staff also liaise with gambling venues and supports them with adhering to the Responsible Gambling Code of Practice and also provides venue staff training around the affects that excessive gambling has on individuals and families. This Program is funded by the Department of Communities. The Team Gayle Sainsbury is the Senior Practitioner of this program. The counselling team consists of Gayle Sainsbury, Lesley Spring, Asha Honeysett and Sonia Muller. Our long serving administration person, Joy Cook retired this year and Katrina Marsh has taken up this position. Lesley Spring is also the Supervisor of Community Education. Peter Nightingale is the Community Educator; Linda Maurer sadly resigned last year as Community Educator. Mary Mclean is the Financial Counsellor. Achievements In spite of changes in some key staff areas, the client service has not diminished in any way and the program continues to provide high quality therapy and education around responsible gambling. Client feedback has been consistently encouraging. Client numbers have also steadily increased during the last six months. This year the Gambling Help Program has supported 104 people who were experiencing difficulties due to excessive gambling. Two informative and high quality newsletters have been published highlighting interesting stories and useful information for service providers and clients. The Community Educators have been extremely busy this year visiting: o 205 Community Agencies o 74 Health Services o 225 Gambling Venues The team has presented information sessions to three Community Groups, set up displays in three Libraries, held 17 Gambling Awareness sessions to 549 people, attended 14 interagency meetings, presented Gambling Awareness education sessions at Mt Lofty High School and held two support groups for clients. 36 35
36 Lifeline Darling Downs & South West Queensland Ltd 2012 Annual Report The Counselling staff conducted two days of Addictions training in May which was of extremely high quality and well received by all attendees. Our hope is that it can be taken out to our regional offices for professional development for staff. The program has been working with the City Golf Club during April by providing counselling on site at the gambling venue for patrons who may be experiencing problems relating to excessive gambling. Staff have coped really well with the structural changes within Lifeline Darling Downs and client service has not been compromised. Challenges Our greatest challenges have been the staff changes because we lost a knowledge base that has taken a while to rebuild. Mary McLean has worked with Gambling Help clients for many years helping them work through the financial six months meant that we had to find other referral avenues and in these areas our clients were competing for attention with flood victims so some referrals fell through the cracks. The move to Russell St comes with the challenge of being directly opposite the second largest gambling venue in Toowoomba, a fact which several of our clients have drawn to our attention. This may mean some of them find it hard to visit us for therapy because it is too close to the source of their addiction. Getting clients to access this service because of the stigma related to gambling. Future directions The Program has been booked to deliver four sessions of Gambling Awareness education to Year Eleven at Harristown High, we are hoping to be able to present to other schools in the coming year. The Community Educators have organised with the Toowoomba Sports Club to run weekly forums around gambling issues open to patrons of the club. The program will continue to deliver Information and education sessions around problems associated with excessive gambling to the communities in Toowoomba and South West Queensland. The program will continue to provide professional counselling to individuals and families adversely affected by excessive gambling. 37
Page 1 and 2: Restructure and Asset Renovations A
Page 3 and 4: 2 bOARD OF DIREcTORS 1 OcTObER 2011
Page 5 and 6: ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE Whole of O
Page 7 and 8: 6 Community Resilience Gavin Quinn
Page 9 and 10: 8 Chairman's Report Lifeline Darlin
Page 11 and 12: 10 Lifeline Darling Downs & South W
Page 33 and 34: 32 Lifeline Lifeline Darling Darlin
Page 35: 34 Flood Counselling Lifeline Darli
Page 43 and 44: 42 Back Wall (Bottom to top): Nigel
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Page 47 and 48: 46 From Left: Tamara Willis; Bobett
Page 51 and 52: 50 Challenges Lifeline Darling Down
Page 57 and 58: 56 Future directions Lifeline Darli
Page 59 and 60: 58 Future directions Lifeline Darli
Page 69 and 70: 68 Future directions St George Life
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88 Lifeline Darling Downs & South W
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Annual Report 2012 - Lifeline Darling Downs

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