Gambling addicts have offered to help with a new pilot project in Limerick

Kids and adults whose screen time and video games are harming their lives have a new program to turn to in the Midwest.

Saoirse Addiction Treatment Centre has been selected as one of four centres across the country to pilot a project that will provide help and support to teenagers and their parents as well as adults for whom gambling has become an addiction.

Players aged 14 and over are accepted into the programme, which aims “to work with young people where they are in a collaborative setting,” Saoirse’s advisor Saoirse Teehan told the Limerick Post.

While parents around the world are being asked to be cautious about how much time their children and young people are spending online, Saoirse says there is a clear problem “when it starts to impact on their daily lives, when children are staying up until the early hours playing games and they have to get up for school, when hobbies they might have enjoyed are abandoned or they stop socialising.

“Parents will say that it is often difficult to get children to come even for a family meal. They spend too much time on their computers and phones, to the detriment of their own lives and family relationships.”

Insidiously, many of the online games that children play today involve an element of gambling, where money must be paid to purchase “loot boxes” without any information about what they contain.

Other games involve purchasing aesthetic “skins” (character costumes) or equipment for the game’s characters, which can quickly become a peer pressure situation, with young people feeling like they have to spend money. money to keep up.

Although no 14-year-old can walk into a betting shop or casino and place a bet, games that encourage gambling allow them to do so.

“Parents are obviously very involved in the process and they are the ones who contact us first. We can assess whether what is happening is a problem and, if so, we try to connect with the young person and work with them,” Saoirse said.

The program begins with the young person documenting how much time they spend online and then working to realistically reduce that time or reintroduce other activities.

The process also encourages the young person to ask themselves what they are getting out of the game “and to find out what is going on at home,” says Saoirse.

The gambling program is run alongside a gambling addiction program and parents are provided with a support worker so that the family, counselor and support person all work collaboratively.

Anyone wishing to discuss the gaming programme or any other addiction treatment support services with the Saoirse Centre can contact 085 818 4590.

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