Chapter title: Counselling Approaches for Gambling Disorder: Gambling Interventions for Indigenous Peoples
Author: Ashley Gordon, B.A.
Affiliation: NSW Aboriginal Safe Gambling Services, Australia
Author: Helen Breen, Ph.D.
Affiliation: Southern Cross University, Australia
Author Biographies:
Ashley Gordon is an Aboriginal Australian from the western-NSW community of Brewarrina. After a successful career in rugby league with the Newcastle Knights, Ashley is actively involved in the Gambling Help sector with extensive experience working with more the 200 Aboriginal communities throughout Australia. Ashley has vast experience in community education, awareness, help-seeking and the delivery of successful programs for Indigenous peoples and communities. Addressing the impacts of gambling in Aboriginal communities is his passion highlighted by the appointment to the federal Ministerial Expert Advisory Group on Gambling and the Expert Advisory Group for the Australian Gambling Research centre. Ashley is a gambling counsellor with 20 years of experience, and six years of gambling research experience with the Centre for Gambling Education and Research at Southern Cross University at Lismore. He joined the National Suicide Prevention Trial Evaluation Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sub-Committee. He is the Executive Director of NSW Aboriginal Safe Gambling Services, where he manages the Warruwi Gambling Help program, which targets Aboriginal communities and Gambling Help organizations across NSW each year. Ashley has a long-term objective to be involved in the ongoing development and implementation of Gambling related policies and programs that improve the well-being of Aboriginal people. Since the gambling question has been placed in the 715 Health Checks, Ashley has been focusing on training Aboriginal Health Workers.
Dr. Helen Breen, Ph.D., is an Adjunct and member of the Emeritus Faculty at Southern Cross University Australia. Her gambling expertise includes public health-focused research on harm minimization, consumer protection and promotion of social responsibility; gambling impacts for specific groups, including Indigenous peoples, women, seniors and tourists; and gambling and family violence.
