Gordon Moody’s first women-only residential program opened in 2021. Following a pilot period, the programme was moved to the West Midlands in June 2023 and fully rolled out.

Currently, treatment consists of six weeks in residential treatment, as well as support before and after. One week centres on assessment, four focus on treatment and one is a “wind-down” week. This also includes recovery housing as a step before returning to independent life.

The study followed 68 women who attended the female residential programme between November 2021 and November 2023. It was co-authored by Dr. Rosalind Baker-Frampton, evaluation and research lead at Gordon Moody, as well as representatives from the University of Nottingham, the University of Lincoln and the National Addiction Centre.

Upon entering the programme, 64 women completed the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), a tool to measure at-risk gambling behaviour. A total of 54 women completed the PGSI at the end of treatment, 31 women completed it three months post-treatment and 23 women completed it six months post-treatment.

All the women who completed the PGSI at the start of the programme scored >8, which is the high-risk category.

However, six months after treatment, almost half – 47.8% – of the women who completed the PGSI showed no gambling behaviours. A total of 13.0% in this category were classed as low risk, while 17.4% were classed as high risk. Meanwhile, 21.7% remained in the high-risk category.

Rates of depression and anxiety lowered

The study also looked at rates of depression and anxiety in participants before and after treatment.

All 68 women completed the Core-10 assessment at the beginning of their treatment, while 23 women completed it six months post-treatment. The Core-10 is an assessment that measures psychological distress.

The majority – 67.3% – of women entering the programme presented with symptoms of depression. This is compared to 39.1% who presented with depression six months after treatment ended. A total of 60.9% of women reported no depression symptoms or psychological distress in the six months post-treatment.

A total of 65 women completed the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) assessment upon entering treatment, and 55 completed it at the end. In this instance, rates of anxiety were also found to have fallen – 35.3% of women presented with severe anxiety at the start of treatment, while none presented with severe anxiety at the end.

In addition, 19.5% were not found to experience any clinical anxiety at the start of treatment. This amount rose to 55.6% at the end of the programme.

The study outlined that women might experience more benefits from residential treatment.

“Women in particular may benefit from residential treatment, as the encompassing nature of residential treatment, away from caregiving and other responsibilities, allows them the time and space to address trauma and learn coping strategies,” it read.