Electronic gambling machines, or the pokies, are very addictive for some people.
Photo: Creative Commons

Axing the Salvation Army’s rehabilitation programme could cause recovering addicts to relapse, an anti-addicts advocate says.

For more than three decades, The Salvation Army Oasis programme has offered services to prevent and diminish gambling harm for more than 60,000 patients.

The service, funded by the Ministry of Health, helps more than 2000 people impacted by gambling harm every year.

But this year, the charity’s submission to remain providing the services was unsuccessful.

The Army’s addictions national director Rod Care said the decision came as a surprise.

“The contract [with Te Whatu Ora] has been held for some years and every period of time, the Ministry of Health, like any contracting services, would put out a request for proposal (RFP) and then the providers would respond and put their RFP in.

“This year, we thought we put a really good RFP. We concentrated heavily on peer support, experienced workers, we had a new initiative of a multi-peer support model and we also have strengthened our services for Māori within the Salvation Army.

“To be honest, we’re really disappointed to miss out completely.”

Care said after three decades of services, the communication from Te Whatu Ora could have been better.

“We were notified by e-mail, basically just saying that we had missed on our RFP and thanking us for our services over many years. We felt that it lacked a personal approach.

“After over 30 years, we thought there’d be something more than just the standard e-mail.”

He said the decision to axe the charity’s services may stop some people from seeking help.

“People with gambling addictions tend to struggle to front up to services and seek help. I think the difficulty in changing providers will create a challenge for the sector, as some may simply not choose to get the help that they need.

“We do certainly have concerns about the welfare of our clients how the transition to a different provider will have an impact in their treatment.”

Care said the charity had not ruled out reapplying in the next tender, but it would be challenging to rebuild the workforce.

“It would be a challenge because we will have to scale down now and then if we were wanting to enter the sector again, then we would have to scale right back up and start from scratch again.

“And in that time, we would have to consider the cost of scaling back up again to meet the demand so that those are the challenges and the options and all the considerations that we’d have to give thought to going forward.

He said the programme cancellation left dozens without jobs.

“Our professionals are very experienced in the gambling-harm sector and they’re having to find work right on the Christmas New Year period, which might make them choose to walk away from the sector.

“We might actually lose capacity and competency, and that would indeed be a great loss and a tragedy, particularly for clients who depend on our services.”

In a statement, Te Whatu Ora said it could not disclose any information about the new anti-gambling service provider, as it was currently in a procurement process.

“While this is under way, we are unable to comment further,” a spokesperson said.

Significant loss – Gambling and Addictions Research Centre

AUT Gambling and Addictions Research Centre director Maria Bellringer.
Photo: Supplied

The abrupt change in service provider was concerning the Gambling and Addictions Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology.

Director Maria Bellringer said sudden changes could damage patient-clinician relationships, causing vulnerable people to drop out of treatment.

“The therapeutic relationship is a huge part of someone’s healing process.

“If that relationship is lost because the provider is no longer operating, [patients] may not have the strength to find someone else because it takes a lot of courage to seek help and say to someone ‘I’m in trouble because I’m gambling too much’.”

Bellringer said gambling-harm specialised services might limit the support offered to those with addiction, as gambling was not always the primary reason people sought help.

“Problematic gambling is never an issue on its own. It coexists with all sorts of other things, for example, alcohol, drug problems and homelessness.

“One of the benefits of the Salvation Army as a service is that people could go to the alcohol and drug services, and then they might say they also have a gambling problem and be referred quickly to the Oasis programme.”

She said the Salvation Army programme was unique in being able to provide a big wrap-around service for patients.

“[The Salvation Army] provides all those services and that’s where the loss will be, because the time taken to refer or to help someone access another service might be too long, and that [patient] strength to seek help could be gone by then.”

That was not to say that other service providers could not do the same, Bellringer said.

“But generally [other services] have to refer the patient to a different provider in case gambling is not their only issue, so that process wouldn’t be as quick.”

She said the cancellation of the Oasis programme represented a loss for the gambling-harm sector.

“The Salvation Army have a lot of institutional knowledge because they’ve been providing the service for so long and have always been really keen to collaborate in research, to reduce and understand gambling harms.

“To lose them as a research collaborator and partner because they’re no longer operating gambling services is actually going to be a huge loss to gambling, research.”

Setback for the cause – advocate

Peter Thorburn triumphed over a challenging 23-year battle with addiction, and now works as an advocate and trainer in the mental health industry.

He said stopping the charity’s service would be a significant setback for the cause.

“If you take that service away, those thousands of people that the Army has been treating now need to find a connection with someone else at a different service.

“Without that connection, chances are they might fall through the gaps, relapse and start [doing] it again.”

Te Whatu Ora said it was looking for services that put people who experience gambling harm at the forefront of their delivery, and provide innovative, holistic solutions to reduce harm.

Thornburn said specialised anti-gambling services might not get as much reach from patients needing help.

“What drives the [gambling] behaviour is these coexisting mental health and other challenges in people’s lives. If you just address gambling, you do not really address the other coexisting problems very effectively.

“Without addressing the underlying conditions, the treatment isn’t as effective as those that actually sort of walk alongside people with their mental health, their housing problems, their financial stress, their access to food.

“If we can’t get [services] to help around their trauma, then [patients] are more likely to slip up. It’s all intertwined.”

The Salvation Army Oasis programme is set to end by 31 January 2024.