5-Step Method Workshop

An exciting opportunity to attend a training workshop delivered by two experienced problem gambling counsellors Kate Roberts and Barbara Bicego. The training will be focused on participants acquiring the skills needed for them to use this method effectively; at the end of training, participants will be able to deliver the 5-Step Method to their patients/clients.

Please find more information here

See our event page, where you can find more information as well as buy tickets online here

Kate Roberts is a senior social worker and consultant adult educator with extensive experience in clinical social work, casework, counselling, group work, community development, project management, health promotion, research and professional education.

For the past 14 years she has been involved in working with gambling issues as a community development worker, educator, problem gambling counsellor and community advocate. She is founding chairperson of the Gambling Impact Society (NSW) a community education, information and advocacy organisation for those affected by problem gambling and an information resource for those working within the field of gambling.

Kate has worked in both government and non- government sectors in Great Britain and Australia. A member of the National Association of Gambling Studies, she has presented at national and international conferences on gambling and is currently completing a PhD in Gambling Studies at Monash University.

Kate continues to lobby at both State and national level to raise awareness about gambling issues and problem gambling in particular. She has worked with others to establish a Responsible Gambling Awareness Week as a National event and is a member of the Federal Ministerial Expert Advisory Group on Gambling Reform. Kate has a firm commitment to community education and public health approaches to gambling in the community and actively advocates for consumer representation on this issue.

Barbara Bicego – is a psychologist in private practice in Wollongong, and has previously worked in the tertiary education, community health, and the NGO sectors. She is committed to working with clients in a holistic, client-centred way, and considers people in the context of the bigger picture of their lives, their relationships, families, workplaces, and local communities etc. Throughout her career she has challenged the victim blaming behaviour inherent in the pathologising of individuals, e.g. as problem gamblers. Pathologising individuals creates a societal context in which powerful vested interests, like the gambling industry, are able to dodge scrutiny. This is unacceptable in a democratic society, and as a health professional she regards herself as a political activist concerned with redressing such inequities.