Salvation Army to trial chaplaincy in clubs
(Stock image courtesy of The Salvation Army)
Uniformed Salvation Army chaplains could soon be a familiar sight at clubs across NSW, if a trial at the Mingara Club on the NSW Central Coast is successful.
The Salvation Army has announced it is trialling a new approach to identifying and assisting problem gamblers within the clubs environment.
Speaking about the trial, which will see a uniformed Salvation Army chaplain visiting a Central Coast club for up to 15 hours a week, Major Paul Moulds, the Australia Eastern Territory’s Director of Social Programs, says it provides the Army with an opportunity to do what it does best: build relationships with people.
“This is all about visibility and proximity. The Salvation Army has always been on the front line in the places where people are struggling and doing it tough,” says Major Moulds.
“This initiative will allow The Salvation Army to place a trained person directly in the club environment where we know some people are struggling with all sorts of life issues, including addiction to gambling.
“The chaplain will be available to give non-judgmental support and provide referrals, practical help and intervention to any of the staff or club patrons. They will be particularly equipped to provide support to people who have gambling addictions.”
The Salvation Army is fully funding the trial and Clubs NSW is supporting it by providing access to the Mingara Club.
“We are totally committed to supporting measures that reduce the harm done by poker machines,” Major Moulds says.
“Our addiction treatment services treat hundreds of people each year whose lives have been devastated by the impact of gambling. This new initiative is one small contribution we can make to test new approaches to assisting people experiencing gambling addiction and secondary issues resulting from their gambling patterns.”
The Australia Eastern Territory has been supportive of a trial of poker machine mandatory pre-commitment, and is also backing any moves to investigate the viability and effectiveness of a proposal to cap pokies bets to $1 a spin.
The club chaplaincy trial is part of The Salvation Army’s commitment to seek new and innovative methods of limiting and removing the social implications of problematic gambling.
Comments
Paul, is the Army's position one of care and support ?, we as an organisation should be mindful of doing a weak and disjointed federal Goverment's bidding to acheive there tune, sure people in addiction cause wreckage and carnage when in full flight, the question this writer asks is "when is the best interests opf the addicted person best served?" this can only be answered by the addicted person who says enough is enough and what has his or her addioction cost them!!,then and only then will and can progress be made towards recovery , this writer has a problem in peoples perception of the Army moving in on the scene , and changing the goal posts to suit a fratured Federal Goverment, we are the Salvation Army, formed to carry a message of strength and hope
@Denis Mitchell;: The Salvation Army has always been there with people who need help, no matter what the government policy is of the day. I cannot see how this program is disjointed in terms of our mission, that being: "meeting human need wherever it occurs".
As Salvos we don't agree with gambling, and we most certainly don't agree with the most vicious form of it, that being through the use of poker machines. However, the reality is we don't help people by turning our back on them, and we don't meet their needs by refusing to go into the dark places that they exist.
The Salvation Army all through its history has been where the need is, has been where the drunkards are, has been with the sex workers out on the streets and in the brothels. Being in pokie rooms is no different.
Upfront I just want to say that I do not harbor ill feelings toward the Salvation Army as a whole. However, at least as far as certain spokespeople of the Salvation Army Eastern division are concerned I do have a problem with their stance on poker machines. Paul Moulds wrote a response to an article entitled 'A State of Mind: A Pokie in the Gut' to which I then responded to him. I have been directly involved with poker machines for over 30 years as both a 'player' and activist, so I am not some wet behind the ears person making rash/uninformed comments. As far as your stance is on getting in there and helping people in need regardless of the circumstances, I 'get' all that and I respect and have no problem with it. I also have understood throughout that you 'support' measures to help 'problem gamblers'. However, given the leech like attachment vested interests have in the revenue that flows from the way machines are currently configured and the almost impossible task of altering this setup to reduce the revenue and harm they cause, I feel you could have played your hand a whole lot smarter (continued).
There are a number of things I cannot reconcile in my mind about your position and this concerns being principled also. Given the difficulties described in the last sentence of the above part of my comment. This by the way would still apply regardless of any further compelling evidence to curtail the machines as the industry will continue to do all they can to raise doubts and put roadblocks up. I imagine this would also include another multimillion dollar campaign which in itself is unethical because - where is all that money coming from??? Therefore my grievance here is twofold. Although you are aware (you must be) of these very challenging conditions you remain quite adamant about research and trials for full pre commitment, $1 bet limits etc. Surely, in circumstances such as these and where the gains would more than likely outweigh the costs, is it not better to take the chance rather than putting up roadblocks yourself? Without all the support we can muster (though that still may not be enough) I can see our hands being tied for years to come while waiting around for 'research' to be completed, disputed over and finally nothing meaningful happening once again. This is just not acceptable anymore. If you say we still need 'evidence' regardless, then, I would say very forcefully to you, where was the evidence to support it being even anything like a good idea to have machines in so many community venues that grew to have multi credits/lines, note acceptors and so on (and on) which are capable of extracting many, many hundreds of dollars per hour from just mainly regular people. Not one person has ever given a satisfactory answer to this question in fact most have not even bothered to try - very disappointing.
In my previous statement on this matter , I drew attention to the Army's procarious position of doing the Federal Gov. bidding in this matter, alas Matt (who is entitled to his opinion)runs down the path of rescue , his pure thoughts are to be commended, the problem with people living in addiction , is that there can be no recovery till the point where the addicted person makes a decision to seek help ,take stock and acknowledge that there is a problem, all this writer see's on the horizon is an organisation(The Army)finishing with egg on its face doing the dirty work for a struggling Government, who is seeking public approval without getting its hands dirty, the personal opinion of this writer RE:machines is that they are part of the addiction process and will only cease after addmission by the person that there is an out of control problem