Henrietta Bowden-Jones
14 Jul 2023
The National Centre for Gaming Disorders, the first NHS clinic designated to treat gaming disorder, saw its first patient in early 2020 but I had been aware of the need for this type of treatment for several years prior to its opening.
The clinic was part of the much-lauded 2019 NHS long-term plan, which has only recently further expanded its network of gambling treatment clinics to a total of 15, reaching its planned national coverage a year ahead of plan.
When gaming was not a disorder treated by the NHS, I would frequently, as director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, be contacted by relatives of young gamers who were desperate for help. I increasingly began to feel that the young people who were spending money on gaming products in a compulsive and destructive manner also needed our help.