An exploratory study of the impacts of gambling on affected others accessing a social service

Problem gambling affects many people beyond the problem gambler themselves. Help-seeking is relatively rare among affected others, especially those in lower socioeconomic communities. However, these affected others are sometimes in contact with other support agencies. The present research interviewed 10 people seeking support through a social agency who reported being affected by someone else’s gambling. Data from semi-structured interviews were analysed using an inductive descriptive approach to identify three themes: 1) This is ugly; 2) It affects everything; and 3) I just do it by myself. The results highlight the normality of harmful gambling across generations, the lack of any positive aspects to gambling for affected others, and the impacts on families and children. Specific gambling-related help seeking remains rare, however the opportunity to provide support, information and advice on approaches to coping to affected others as they contact social services is highlighted

Reasons for using web-based counselling among family and friends impacted by problem gambling

Despite the range of free services available in Australia, few family and friends of&nbsp;people with problem gambling access them. Over recent years, the Australian&nbsp;gambling help service system has expanded to include web-based counselling.&nbsp;Family and friends make up approximately 15% of people accessing this new&nbsp;modality, however little is known of the reasons for choosing this form of assistance&nbsp;over other interventions. This research aimed to understand the reasons family and&nbsp;friends choose to use single-session web-based counselling over other modes (i.e.,&nbsp;face-to-face and telephone), as well as why they would recommend it to other&nbsp;affected people. The study involved 63 participants (70% intimate partners, 13%&nbsp;children, 6% friends, 5% parents, 6% other family members) who completed openended&nbsp;questions on reasons for using and recommending web-based counselling,&nbsp;with over three-quarters of the sample seeking help for the first time. A descriptive&nbsp;content analysis revealed multiple overlapping themes, including ease of access&nbsp;(41.3% of reasons for choosing), privacy and anonymity (17.5%), and a preference for&nbsp;the characteristics inherent in the therapeutic medium (23.8%). We also found webbased&nbsp;counselling provided a pathway into services (11.1%) and that the intervention&nbsp;provided was viewed as helpful and a reason for recommendation (34.9% of reasons&nbsp;for recommending). This research provides important new information on the help seeking&nbsp;preferences of family and friends. Future research is required to understand&nbsp;the relationship between reasons for use, help-seeking preferences and the&nbsp;effectiveness of single-session web-based counselling for people affected by problem gambling.</span

Kuluttajabarometri maakunnittain 2000, 2. neljännes

Suomen virallinen tilasto (SVT

Use of failure-to-rescue to identify international variation in postoperative care in low-, middle- and high-income countries: a 7-day cohort study of elective surgery

This was an investigator-initiated study funded by Nestle Health Sciences through an unrestricted research grant and by a National Institute for Health Research (UK) Professorship held by R.P. The study was sponsored by Queen Mary University of London

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries The International Surgical Outcomes Study group

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700