Neil Platt of Beacon Counselling Trust to facilitate workshops at bacta SR Exchange

With a packed programme and registration numbers increasing on a daily basis, the bacta SR exchange is on course for an engaging and highly productive event.

Social Responsibility is core to bacta’s mission and the SR Exchange has been conceived to bring together Social Responsibility professionals, Operators and their staff for an exchange of knowledge and experience.

It is anticipated that the free-to-attend event will bring new insight into the prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm. An entire afternoon at the Exchange will be devoted to a series of workshop sessions at which those at the front-line can share their views on what works, what doesn’t work, and why.

Neil Platt, Clinical Director at the Beacon Counselling Trust, will be a facilitator for two individual workshops under the banner: Sometimes it’s more than a game. The Beacon Counselling Trust is a mental health support provider delivering a wide range of community based programmes, through multiple locations across the North West and North Wales. The Trust has engaged with more than 5,000 patients in the last two years.

Neil is an extremely experienced and well respected mental health clinician with a wide range of qualifications in mental health and emotional wellbeing, having worked both nationally and internationally within this field. Neil leads on the Problematic Gambling Treatment and Support programme across the North West and North Wales, The Programme is commissioned through GambleAware and GamCare and will engage with over 2000 patients this year.

Neil also leads on the GamCare Big Deal Young People and Professionals education Programme across the North West. Neil is a Royal Society for Public Health tutor and lectures extensively in the UK and abroad.

Looking forward to the very first SR Exchange, Neil reveals: “I am extremely pleased to be part of the development team of the Sometimes it’s more than a game programme that we will be showcasing at the conference.

“The programme provides practical educational steps for bacta members and their staff to firstly recognise, and secondly to confidently engage with, and then finally to help minimise the harm to individuals and the wider community for those who may be experiencing or at risk of experiencing gambling related harm. This is a wonderfully practical initiative and a model of best practice and collaboration between bacta and Providers within the Treatment and Support network,” concluded Neil.

Anyone wishing to participate in the bacta SR Exchange should contact Linda Malcolm at bacta without delay. Linda may be reached on +44(0)20 7730 6444 or at [email protected]