WHAT song means the most to you?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the question Cafs and Ballarat North Neighbourhood House will be asking this Tuesday, 19 October as they partner to deliver an online event for Gambling Harm Awareness Week.<\/p>\n
Running from this Monday, 18 to Sunday, 24 October, the theme of the week is \u2018talk, share, support.\u2019<\/p>\n
Cafs\u2019 Gamblers Help community engagement officer John Bradshaw said their session will be run via Zoom, using music as a \u201cstimulus\u201d for people to come together to speak, share stories, and support one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe session is modelled on a BBC Radio 4 show that\u2019s been running for nearly eighty years, Desert Island Discs<\/em>, where celebrities choose their favourite songs that they would take with them if they were marooned on a desert island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to get our participants to choose one favourite song, ask them why it means so much to them, and hopefully use that to get them to open up and share stories with other people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that the brain reacts in a positive way to music, but it also evokes emotions. We\u2019ll have some lived experience speakers as well, talking about their stories of hope and recovery from gambling harm, and understand there\u2019s more to talk about this to really reduce the stigma.\u201d<\/p>\n A short video sharing research into gambling\u2019s impacts on the brain will be screened during the Zoom meeting, and live performers will also be online to sing and play their own music.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about using that dopamine hit in the right way,\u201d Mr Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n \u201cGambling, especially the sights and sensory overload of pokies, can be quite confronting for people, so we\u2019re flipping that to use music in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n Cafs receives funding from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation to provide Gamblers Help services for the Grampians Region, while Mr Bradshaw runs a school education program and public events.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the community knowing more about the affects gambling harm can have on individuals and on affected others, it reduces the stigma,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n