“Gambling disorder and over-indebtedness” is the theme of the conference, scheduled for Friday 26 April at 10am at the Bishop's Palace of Agrigento, during which the opening in Agrigento, within the premises of the Mondoaltro Foundation, will be presented, of the listening center for people with gambling problems and over-indebtedness.
The listening center was born from the desire of the Cooperativa Sub tutela Dei, a recently established social enterprise registered with Runts, to help those who find themselves in economic difficulty due to pathological gambling and over-indebtedness.
«Two phenomena, gambling addiction and over-indebtedness – explains the president of the cooperative, Stella Vella – are closely interconnected: the gambling addict is almost always over-indebted. This "human frailty" has a peculiarity compared to other addictions, also thanks to advertising, people normalize the game and hardly become aware of their illness."
«We believe it is important – underlines the president of the Mondoaltro foundation and director of the diocesan Caritas Agrigento, Valerio Landri – to launch a service to listen and combat addictions to pathological gambling, a constantly growing phenomenon that affects everyone across the board. the social groups of our territory. Our Caritas listening centers note the increasingly frequent link between situations of poverty and dependency dynamics. Gambling is now within everyone's reach and people of all backgrounds and ages end up in its plots. The service offered by the Sub tutela Dei cooperative - with its aim of raising awareness in communities of the risks of gambling addiction and supporting those who are victims of it - gives us hope for the future."
At the conference, after the greetings of the archbishop of Agrigento Alessandro Damiano, the mayor of Agrigento Francesco Micciché, Gaetano Micciché of the Prefecture of Agrigento, and the founder of the "Casa dei youth" Salvatore Lo Bue, the speeches of Stella Vella, president of the Sub tutela Dei cooperative which will present the listening centre; Giacomina Di Francesco, psychologist and psychotherapist; Biagio Sciortino, national president of Intercear; Leonardo Giordano, head of the Asp mental health department of Agrigento. The journalist Marilisa Della Monica will coordinate the meeting.
The project of the listening center for gambling addicts and over-indebted people was welcomed and supported by the Archdiocese of Agrigento, the diocesan Caritas of Agrigento, the Mondoaltro Foundation, the Casa dei Giovani – Therapeutic Community and the Occ (Body for the settlement of over-indebtedness crises ) “The Debtor's Rights” of Agrigento.
