Georgia Murphy
I work across clinical research, alcohol and other drug treatment, gambling harm, program content, and small tools that probably started because I got annoyed something did not already exist.
I'm currently working on a PhD on gambling harm and substance use, working in clinical research and program content in an Australian AOD organisation, building a couple of apps, and parenting two excellent small people.
Most of my work comes back to the same thing: how do we take complicated, messy, very human problems and make something useful from them?
I like evidence, but I like it more when it does something.
the thread
What I keep coming back to
A lot of gambling research looks at people in the general population, people accessing gambling-specific treatment, or people with identified co-occurring substance use. All of that work matters. It tells us a lot.
But it is more limited in what it can tell us about gambling harm when gambling is not the presenting issue.
That is the space I keep coming back to: people entering AOD treatment whose gambling may be part of the picture, but not the headline. People whose wellbeing is being shaped by substance use, trauma, housing stress, mental health concerns, financial pressure, legal problems, relationship breakdown, and the general accumulation of things.
In that context, gambling is not always experienced as "the problem". Sometimes it is social. Sometimes it is routine. Sometimes it is one of the few things that feels familiar, hopeful, or connecting. That does not mean gambling is harmless. It means gambling may be one part of a broader system of circumstances that leads to serious outcomes for wellbeing.
My work follows that thread: not just whether gambling and substance use co-occur, but what that co-occurrence means in real treatment-seeking populations.
Get in touch
If you're interested, or want to chat about research or translation, happy to hear from you.
hello@gmurphy.com.auEmail / ORCID / Google Scholar / LinkedIn