GambleAware Week Journal Club 2023: Gambling in Migrant Communities – 19th October 2023

Research tells us that CALD community members tend to participate in gambling less than the overall population in Australia, but those who do gamble may be more likely to develop problem levels of gambling. The aim of this event is to enhance your understanding of the increased risk resulting from the migration and settlement journey and the shame and stigma creating barriers to help seeking for refugees and newly arrived migrants.

The seminar starts with a presentation by clinicians from the GambleAware Multicultural Service on practical ways to establish and strengthen the therapeutic alliance and further your understanding when working with these client groups. Following this, clinicians from both the Multicultural Service and GambleAware Central Sydney sat on a panel to discuss how research and clinical findings on working with CALD client groups, and discussed issues and questions with attendees. Presenters were Froid Xavier, Una Turalic and Marylou Ghyczy from the GambleAware Multicultural Service, and Christopher Hunt and Adrian Ienna from GambleAware Central Sydney. Please see below for their biographies.

Suggested Readings:

1. Wardle, H., Bramley, S., Norrie, C., & Manthorpe, J. (2019). What do we know about gambling-related harm affecting migrants and migrant communities? A rapid review. Addictive behaviors, 93, 180-193.

2. Mazbouh-Moussa, R., & Ohtsuka, K. (2017). Cultural competence in working with the Arab Australian community: a conceptual review and the experience of the Arab Council Australia (ACA) gambling help counselling service. Asian Journal of Gambling Issues and Public Health, 7, 10.

3.Kim, W. (2012). Acculturation and gambling in Asian Americans: When culture meets availability. International Gambling Studies, 12, 69-88.

Speakers Biographies:

Froid Xavier is a multi-lingual psychologist who has been working with refugee and migrant communities over 13 years in various positions. He worked as a Sessional Clinician with the Multicultural Problem Gambling Service for NSW since 2015. Froid is currently working with the GambleAware Multicultural Service as a Clinical Consultant, providing direct services to clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds living in NSW, experiencing negative effects of gambling.

Una Turalic has been working as a Senior Cross-Cultural Development Officer at the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District Multicultural Health Service since 2008. In this capacity, she provides training to medical and allied health staff, leads clinical practice improvement projects, as well as liaising and working closely with CALD community leaders and consumers within NBMLHD region. She is also a Sessional Clinician working with the Gamble Aware Multicultural Service for NSW. In this role she provides therapy to individuals across the age spectrum. She has also presented at numerous national and international conferences and been involved in numerous studies and publications. Una is multilingual and her passion is supporting refugee populations and improving their health outcomes.

Marylou Ghyczy has been working in welfare, with disadvantaged young people and doing research and service evaluation, prior to joining the Transcultural Mental Health Centre Clinical Team in 2006. She has been managing the state-wide Multicultural Problem Gambling service since 2010. She is now the Manager of the NSW GambleAware Multicultural Service.

Christopher Hunt is the Senior Clinical Supervisor at the University of Sydney's GambleAware clinics, which are responsible for co-ordinating government-funded gambling treatment throughout Central, Western and South-Western Sydney, operating out of the University's Brain and Mind Centre. He first began work at the University in the then-titled Gambling Treatment Clinic in early 2007. He has published work on clinical phenomena observed in gambling clients, has been asked to testify before both federal and state parliamentary committees on gambling, has been quoted on gambling in local, national and international media, and has written several pieces on gambling for lay audiences.

Adrian Ienna is a clinical psychology registrar working at the University of Sydney's GambleAware clinics. He has been at the clinic since he completed a student placement at the clinic in 2020. Adrian completed his Bachelor of Psychology, including Honours, at the University of Sydney, and his Masters in Clinical Psychology at Macquarie University. He is passionate about work with gambling harm, and has created several demonstrations and theraputic tools in his time at the clinic. He has also been engaged as a community engagement officer for the clinic, and assists with industry engagement and educational activities.

Funding for this project is provided by the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling