Chief Investigator: Professor Sam Chamberlain, Head of Department, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton; Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Service Director, Southern Gambling Clinic, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Mental Health Research Hub Lead, ARC Wessex, University of Southampton; Sam.chamberlain@soton.ac.uk

Co-Investigators: 

·       Dr Skaiste Linceviciute, Research Fellow, ARC Wessex, University of Southampton; s.linceviciute@soton.ac.uk

·       Dr Konstantinos Ioannidis, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead of the Southern Gambling Service, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Honorary Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton; k.ioannidis@soton.ac.uk

Partners: Dorset Integrated Care Board, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton City Council, Health Innovation Wessex, CNWL NHS Trust, National NHS Gambling Clinic London, Avon and Wiltshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, South West NHS Gambling Service, Swansea University, Gambling in Armed Forces research group, Royal Navy, Southampton City Council, Stronger Communities, Southampton Armed Forces Covenant, Eling Royal British Legion branch, Southampton Voluntary Services, HIOWH NHS Armed Forces Network, The Society of St James, Parent Support Link, Veterans Outreach Support.

Start: 1 December 2024

End: 31 March 2026

Summary

Military veterans are more likely to develop gambling problems than the general public, but far fewer seek help than expected. In the Wessex region there are over 100,000 serving/retired military personnel, yet, our regional addiction services report low levels of veteran personnel referrals. While there may be several barriers stopping veterans from getting help, many veterans might reach a crisis point showing the urgent need for action.

Informed by extensive stakeholder consultation with regional addiction services, individuals with lived experience and training, and with experts from the Armed Forces community, a need has emerged to carry out explorative research and community partnership building on understanding the extent of engagement in accessing treatment and support for gambling with/without alcohol problems for military veterans and learn how this knowledge can enable improvement in this area.

To date we have:

1.      Brought together an engaged and active stakeholder group of experts by experience and training in this field; including veterans, family members of those affected, representatives from veteran charities and groups, the wider support services for the Armed Forces community, and academics who informed our research planning and supported engagement.

2.      Public and community involvement was an embodied element in this study that guided decision making and supported multidisciplinary partnership building in the wider community. In response to lower rates of participation, we have undertaken additional PPIE engagement activities to understand the underlying barriers and challenges in health research recruitment and retention that affects this population. This included flexible, multi-modal approach of engagement that identified recommendations for how researchers could better engage with military veterans.

3.      We are interviewing military veterans with a lived experience of gambling problems to explore gambling treatment and support-seeking experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, across diverse veterans population in Wessex. By identifying common thematic experiences of this group, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of the lived experience with gambling problems and help-seeking in military veterans, and offer insights for region services supporting this population.

These strands of work are supporting necessary evidence gathering and partnership infrastructure building which are needed for informing the planning of further work in this area.