We are conducting a study to understand why some people who gamble experience such deep distress that it leads to suicide, and to find ways to prevent this from happening in the future. This is called a ‘psychological autopsy’. The goal of a psychological autopsy is to better understand the individual’s environment and exposures, circumstances, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that may have contributed to the suicide and to identify any preventable factors. The project is funded by GREO, which is an independent knowledge translation organisation. At present, the project will run until February 2026.
The core premise of the current project is that people with lived experience are involved at every stage of the process, from conceptualisation up until knowledge dissemination. Two individuals with LE of gambling-related harm are co-investigators on the project, and other individuals with LE sit on the Research Advisory Group (RAG) which meets regularly. The charities GamLEARN and Gambling with Lives were closely involved in the development of this bid, including the conception and design of the project and are members of the core research group and RAG. They will continue to be involved in facilitating and supporting the active participation of the wider LE community, alongside the charity GamFam.
We want to interview people who have been affected by gambling harm, whether they’ve lost a loved one to suicide because of gambling or have personally struggled with thoughts of suicide due to gambling. We’ll ask about their lives, their gambling history, any difficulties they faced, and the support they sought. We’ll also look at other available data like their bank statements and social media activity to understand their situations better.
We are interested in understanding the events and circumstances leading to gambling-related suicide, such as common themes, significant risk factors, environmental factors and behaviours to provide a more complete understanding of the nature of gambling-related suicide.
Our aim is to learn from these experiences so we can help prevent others from going through the same pain.
Project Outcomes
- We think that the most useful thing that might come out of the study is a better, more effective approach to gambling suicide prevention. If we can better identify preventable factors that lead to a gambling related suicide, and recommend better ways to address those factors, this might in the future help to prevent suicide by gamblers.
- We will submit our findings to people who put together the National Suicide Prevention Strategy. This is national policy which has real influence on what services get delivered and how they are delivered. The strategy is reviewed at intervals and we hope that our findings will influence future versions of the strategy and that way lead to better and more effective services.
- For individuals who take part, we hope that the chance to share their experiences and discuss them, with the goal of helping towards better suicide prevention in the future, will provide a sense of doing something useful and meaningful, and that it will seem worthwhile.