Problem gambling research and treatment centre
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 16
15 - 29 October 2007 ]
A Problem Gambling Research and Treatment Centre – a joint initiative of the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Victorian Government – was launched recently by Victorian Minister for Gaming, Tony Robinson.
The Centre will receive core infrastructure funding of $4.2 million over four years, and access to a range of other program and research funding.
The Centre grows out of a decade-long inter-University research program which operated under the direction of Professor Alun Jackson, Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, and Professor Shane Thomas, School of Primary Care at Monash University.
Professor Jackson and Professor Thomas have been appointed Directors of the new Centre which will be based at Melbourne’s Parkville campus and Monash’s Clayton campus. A major strength of the Centre will be its multidisciplinary orientation.
The Centre will conduct research into problem gambling treatment approaches; develop new clinical practices; train staff working in gamblers’ help services; establish a postgraduate qualification in problem gambling treatment; conduct a sustained epidemiological study of the forms of gambling, and provide training on problem gambling to industry on a commercial basis.
Professor Jackson says priorities for the Centre in the first 12 months are to examine the relationship between depression and problem gambling and family violence and problem gambling and what interventions will work best in these areas. “We will also look at what sort of prevention and treatment programs are most appropriate for adolescents and young adults,” he says.
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