New Partnership with Social Service Agencies to Address Behavioural Addictions

The partner agencies at an engagement session on the implementation of ASPIRE.

As concerns grow around behavioural addictions such as excessive gaming, pornography consumption and problematic cyber or social media use – which can remain hidden and unaddressed for years – strengthening the sector’s response is becoming increasingly important.

To address this emerging need, NCSS has brought together 10 social service agencies under the three-year Addiction Support Programme for Inclusion, Recovery and Empowerment (ASPIRE). The partnership builds on the strengths of existing providers of counselling services and leverages WE CARE Community Services’ specialist experience to train and mentor counsellors from the other nine agencies. This enables more agencies to provide behavioural addiction support, making it easier for individuals to seek help closer to home.

ASPIRE also connects different levels of support, strengthening early intervention in the community while creating clearer pathways to specialist care for individuals with more complex needs. Beyond improving access and referrals, this initiative is building the sector’s capabilities for the longer term. Partner agencies will come together regularly to share knowledge, learnings and continually improve service delivery.