Please permit me space to present some information on a positive intervention taking place in our country. I have recognised that we have developed a penchant for highlighting and exacerbating the negative, and continuation of this practice will have dire consequences.

In September of 2004 Rise Life Management Services, formerly Addiction Alert, through research, discovered that the number of telephone calls about gambling problems to our lifeline telephone service had increased three-fold. Undoubtedly, we decided that there was a need to provide more intensive support to members of the public faced with problems of pathological gambling issues.

The Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission came on board and provided total sponsorship of the Programme for the Prevention and Treatment of Pathological Gambling Disorder and Problem Gambling. This programme is seen as timely, given the proliferation of games of chance and gaming establishments over the island during the past five years. The programme, apart from providing treatment services, also engages students from primary and high schools in gambling prevention lesson plans geared at helping them to understand, explore and identify the problems associated with adolescent gambling.

Our prevention programme also seeks to ensure that young people are well aware of the age requirement to participate in games of chance and do not violate the law.

Through Hope Enterprises Ltd., we have recently commissioned a study on the prevalence of gambling among adolescents in Jamaica, the results of which we will have in May 2007. This is a benchmark study as at present there is no such data on gambling at all in Jamaica.

Further to this, we are also mandated to provide training and education to relevant individuals and groups across the island. Last year we trained over 50 mental health officers as well as other personnel in an effort to multiply our resources for problem gambling support for Jamaicans. This year we will be providing further training for both guidance and peer counsellors in most parishes. The initiation of this project has enabled us to form useful partnerships with such groups as the Gamblers Anonymous (GA), which many Jamaicans do not know exists for support.

Rehabilitation services

We at Rise Life Management Services would like to congratulate the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission for their support of this programme. The fact is that any increase in the opportunity for gambling will most naturally increase the likelihood that some individuals will gamble in a disordered manner, thus needing treatment and rehabilitation services. There are some very good things happening in our country, and this is just one of many.

I am, etc.,