Intervening in Indigenous Gambling: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Internationally, Indigenous people have higher rates of problem gambling than other population groups, yet the uptake of gambling help services is thought to be low. This may be due to the lack of culturally appropriate services and staff. This study aimed to systematically search and review the literature relating to interventions designed for Indigenous populations that seek to prevent or address gambling harm, to support the design of new programs. Peer-reviewed articles and gray literature that described programs of this nature and/or which reported outcomes for Indigenous participants were included in the review. Included studies were published between January 2000 and May 2019 and available in English. Only four articles were identified for inclusion: two described programs in Australia and two in New Zealand. Only one article provided outcome data, which was inconclusive, and one described three separate interventions. Three of the four described involved community-led approaches informed by cultural and emancipatory principles. There is currently insufficient evidence to guide interventions aiming to prevent and address gambling harm for Indigenous peoples. This review identified an urgent need for new intervention research in this area.

Evidence-based Interventions Targeting Remand Prisoners: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…According to the inclusion criteria previously described, this systematic review found only eight published papers that describe and assess an intervention on RPs. Despite this low result, this is not the first time a systematic review found a huge lack of research on a given topic (e.g., Dehghanniri & Borrion, 2021;Johnson et al, 2019;Maniglio, 2008;Whiteside et al, 2020). This expressive small number of articles supports the assumption that inmates awaiting trial are usually disregarded from the efforts to treat mental and emotional health disorders and adaptation problems within prisons (Duthé et al, 2013).…”

What is known about population level programs designed to address gambling-related harm: rapid review of the evidence

“…Two articles referred to harm reduction programs specific to Indigenous peoples [ 82 , 83 ]. Whiteside et al, (2020) conducted a systematic review of interventions in Indigenous gambling identifying four articles, only one of which provided (indeterminant) outcomes data.…”