3 July 2023

CNWL will lead a joint venture with Inclusion – an arm of Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) – to establish the East of England Gambling Service.

Launching in Spring 2023, the partnership will combine CNWL’s 15 years’ experience delivering pioneering NHS gambling treatment (the National Problem Gambling Clinic) with Inclusion’s long-standing reputation for providing high-quality addiction and mental health services at the national level.

The new service will be for people:

  • aged 18 or over
  • experiencing significant harm from their own or someone else’s gambling
  • not currently receiving in-patient treatment for acute mental health difficulties

It will accept referrals from a variety of external services around the East of England region, including GPs, Health and Justice providers, voluntary agencies and social services. It will also welcome self-referrals where possible.

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, Founder and Director of CNWL’s National Problem Gambling Clinic and The National Centre for Gaming Disorders said:

"I am delighted and grateful that NHS England have delivered early on their 2019 long-term plan pledge to expand gambling treatment clinics from the only one, which I ran for over a decade, to now fifteen in all across the country.

“Gambling Disorder deserves parity of esteem with other addictions and with other mental health disorders. We are on our way to achieving this with 3000 treatment episodes a year for the NHS network. Gambling Disorder is no longer a hidden addiction now the NHS has intervened".

Teresa Wirz, CNWL’s Head of Addictions said: “We are thrilled to be working with Inclusion to help people in eastern England overcome their problems with gambling.

“CNWL is vastly experienced at running successful gambling clinics and we’re looking forward to building on the strong relationships we already have in the region in order to deliver an effective and patient-focussed service.”

Paul Evans, MPFT’s Operational and Development Lead said: “The Inclusion/MPFT team are delighted to working with CNWL colleagues to provide the East of England Gambling Service.

“We bring years of experience providing psychological services nationally and are really excited to work with service users who wish to change their gambling behaviour.

“We look forward to supporting service users and families across the East of England.”