Gambling Case Management System for National Gambling Helpline
GamCare, the leading provider of problem gambling advice and support and operator of the National Gambling Helpline, chose Theseus for its gambling case management system
UK Gambling Addiction
The UK Government recognises gambling as a growing public health problem. Over half a million Britons are thought to have a significant monthly habit and those spending 30% or more of their income on gambling have a 37% increase in mortality within 5 years.[1][2]
GamCare was founded in 1997 and is the leading provider of advice and support for people affected by harm caused by gambling. Its teams provide essential support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Key Deliverables
GamCare’s helpline deals with over 150 calls, messages and chats from gamblers and affected others per day and the organisation needed a new case management and referrals platform to help manage its caseload and support its vital work.
There were two key project aspects to be delivered:
Integrated Mobile Interface
A user-friendly mobile interface closely integrated with GamCare’s call management system for GamCare’s distributed team of helpline advisors
Case Management
A flexible case management system supporting integrated referrals to GamCare’s network of partner providers
Following a competitive process we were delighted when our Theseus Health and Wellbeing management platform was selected for this nationally important project.
Project Discovery and Planning
As with all projects of this nature, we kicked things off with a series of planning sessions with the GamCare project team to build rapport, trust and a thorough understanding of the finer details of the project.
Thorough discovery processes and regular co-production and demo meetings are a fundamental part of our Agile approach to project management.
We always enjoy meeting customers face-to-face during kick-off and sadly this wasn’t possible due to Covid-19. However we were pleased with just how easily and intuitively the discovery process for this complex project was progressed remotely via webinars.
A comprehensive range of topics were discussed in the discovery process, including refinement of the project plan, data migration requirements through to ideation of the helpline interface.
Another key topic covered was to identify a practical approach to gathering feedback and we deployed our versatile customer support portal to enable GamCare and its strategic partners to identify issues, register feedback and collaborate with our team in a secure environment.
It quickly became apparent the project had come at a very pertinent time with the extension of the first national lockdown leading to a deterioration in people’s mental health and a surge in problem gambling and helpline calls.
Gambling Case Management
Our versatile and proven Theseus case management platform enabled us to readily configure GamCare’s workflows and data capture requirements.
A key aspect of the project was the ability for the GamCare helpline to refer individuals to local partner provider services for further support and treatment.
Theseus integrated referrals pathways delivered this requirement and enables helpline staff to securely send referrals, complete with client details and case notes, to partner agencies.
Gambling Addiction Referrals
Referrals are received by partner providers in an inbound referrals dashboard where they can be accepted onto caseload. Partner providers benefit from Theseus’ comprehensive array of features such as group work session management, caseload allocation management, diary management and account management.
Theseus’ account management features deliver efficient scalability as it empowers lead provider contacts to set up staff accounts and manage access for their organisation. Theseus also enables service providers to record outcomes for their clients and share them with GamCare.
Gambling Helpline System
Our delivery of an optimised interface for GamCare helpline operatives utilises our recent innovative developments of the Theseus Mobile Worker View.
The Worker View enables simple client management on any device – whether in an office environment, at home, in a clinic, or in the field.
A great deal of thought and care has been put into the user interface through the application of User-Experience Design to maximise ease of use and accessibility.
Gambling Case Management Mobile Worker View
The Service Worker View was configured to the requirements of GamCare’s distributed helpline teams which deliver the National Gambling Helpline.
These included the deployment of effective risk assessments and risk flagging within the interface and the implementation of two triage processes, one for problem gamblers and one for affected others (it’s estimated that for each problem gambler, six other people are directly harmed by the fallout).
Of prime importance was the integration of Theseus with GamCare’s Five-9 multi-channel communications system to automatically search the client database using incoming phone numbers or details captured in via SMS, online chat, WhatsAPP and Facebook.
Incoming calls trigger a Theseus client search via a connector, saving time and effort for Helpline staff and enabling them to quickly get to the client record.
Helpline staff can also save their additions ‘in progress’ for later completion – for example, if the conversation with a client prompts completion of a risk assessment.
When Helpline operatives refer a client to a partner provider, consent for this is captured at the point of referral.
Gambling Helpline and Partner Training
For ease of rollout and to create a lasting point of reference for GamCare we provided a comprehensive collection of narrated training videos organised into bite-size topics and themes and split between roles.
Training videos were made available via the project portal. A further benefit of this approach is experienced GamCare staff and partners can share additional in-house videos going forward to provide staff with additional workflow detail as needed.
The video training we provided was also augmented with live webinar sessions for Superusers and Data Specialists delivered by an expert member of the Cyber Media team.
Caseload Management Migration
As part of the project GamCare required us to provide a managed migration service from their outgoing system.
With GamCare being the biggest provider of gambling support in the UK, the task was substantial involving an intricate and complex custom migration into Theseus – one of the largest we had ever undertaken.
We provided a secure and encrypted transfer mechanism for safe receipt of the data. A total of 20 individual CSV exports were supplied, in addition to a ZIP file containing thousands of files to attach to client records.
We configured 17 individual migration routines to import the various data records and forms that needed to be populated in Theseus and rigorously tested the routines using mock data before carrying out on a GamCare TEST system.
Multiple iterations of migration dry-runs were conducted to identify issues and throughout the process, the Theseus Project Product Owner and GamCare Migration Lead worked in close collaboration to troubleshoot and implement solutions.
The round the clock support that GamCare provides, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, also added to the challenge and we responded by delivering the migration overnight on a Bank Holiday ready for the start of a new helpline shift.
The careful planning, preparation and testing were all worthwhile as the migration was completed on time and to expectations. Over 150,000 client records were migrated, nearly 450,000 treatment session records and over 13,000 documents.
Project Outcomes
We’re extremely proud our Theseus platform is now being used in the treatment of gambling addiction – one of our country’s biggest wellbeing challenges.
With Theseus gambling case management, GamCare and its partner network have an effective integrated platform to support the vital work of their passionate and committed teams.
As well as intuitive helpline and referrals management, Theseus provides GamCare with powerful reporting dashboards for monitoring performance.
The project has also proven that large, complex and high profile projects can be readily delivered from start to finish through collaborative remote working.