The Gambling Counselor’s Client Education Toolbox: Choosing the Right Tool for the Job Emily Sheepy BSc, Concordia University, Montreal

The research reported on this poster was completed in partial fulfillment of a MA in Educational Technology at Concordia University, Montreal.

WHAT WE LEARNED

BACKGROUND

QUALITATIVE METHODS

In the past decade, problem gambling has risen in

prominence as a public health issue (Peller, LaPlate, &

Shaffer, 2007. Organizations such as the Center for

Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have invested in client

education materials for use in gambling counseling. Though

many resources are available to treatment professionals,

little is known about how they access, evaluate and use

these materials.

AIMS • To develop an understanding of the process by which

problem gambling treatment providers select and integrate

gambling-specific client education materials into practice

• To identify factors that may impact upon the above process.

• To identify opportunities for the development of more

effective client education materials and counselor resources.

• Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted

over the phone by a single interviewer in April-June 2012

• Snowball sampling was used to collect varied views of 6

problem gambling treatment providers based in Ontario

•Participant-submitted client education materials were

subject to quantitative content analysis [not discussed

here]

• On-going inductive analysis applying elements of Strauss

and Corbin’s grounded theory methodology was used to

describe and group factors

PARTICIPANTS

6 English-speaking Ontario PG treatment providers,

all working in agency settings.

All had received formal training in PG treatment,

4 have mixed caseloads (PG plus substance abuse).

4 participants provide family and group counseling in

addition to 1-on-1 care.

1 works in an in-patient program in a large urban center.

2 work in rural settings with relatively low PG rates.

REFERENCES Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2007). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded

theory. Sage Publications, Incorporated.

Peller, A.J., LaPlante, D.A., & Shaffer, H.J. (2007). Toward a public health approach to improve parameters for safer

gambling. The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS): Op-ed/editorials. Retrieved from

http://www.basisonline.org/opededitorials/page/3/

RESULTS

.

• factual and testimonial content, particularly early in treatment,

clarifies what PG is, normalizes distress and provides models for

success

EMPOWERING THE CLIENT

“[The handouts]

normalize what

people are going

through, that they’re

not, you know,

kinda going crazy."

“… [new clients] feel isolated. They don’t know where

to go for help. So, key messages like [testimonials] can

be very encouraging, to say, “You know what? This is a

personal story. This is a real story of someone

suffering from the same addiction as I am. So if they’re

doing it and they’ve come for help, now maybe I can.”

“They know that … they'll be able to go

to those websites at home and be able

to spend the time on their own and

actually go through and really look at

the areas that they find most palpable.”

“… having [the information] in

their own hands and not having

to ask others for that … I think

that's comforting for people.”

• access to opportunities for education, especially self-directed

learning, helps some clients to feel more in control—they get the

sense of doing something positive.

• design elements such as interactivity, layout, chunking of content,

• color, graphics and imagery all impact on perceived value of

materials from the counselor’s perspective

MESSAGE DESIGN

• designs that do not account for context of use can be a barrier to

acceptance and comprehension of some materials

"Some of the pamphlets we get for

free--you can't see the topic... it's

written at the bottom and that's the part

that sits in the holder [of the lobby

display].”

“all the materials that are on … getting some

help--are really dull … they’re just not

something that would catch your eye if

you were looking at a bunch of pamphlets.

Pro-gambling materials are bright and flashy”

“We used to have some materials

that had gambling images or

pictures which we decided ... wasn’t

helpful, because images and

pictures can be very triggering.”

"I like to use more of a ...

worksheet-based interactive

tool, because that way it kind

of acts as a medium to really

open up the conversation

around what's going on for

them.”

• this sample reported needs for simplified materials more suitable for

clients with cognitive impairment, translated materials to more fully

address advanced states of change, as well as more gambling-specific

homework

“There’s a lot of stuff that [clients with low

literacy] can’t read or use … they can’t fill

out the forms…[More interactive

audiovisuals] would be a little easier for

them to access”

ROOM TO GROW

•these agencies did not formal seek feedback on client reception of the

materials they use

“No, we get no feedback on what [clients] thought of [the materials]--I shouldn’t

say no feedback--there’s no formal method of recording how effective they

thought it was.

•although online support groups such as CG hub were seen as useful,

unhelpful mixed messaging was reported in that space

“We don’t talk about the online support groups with everyone as it partially

because we don’t have any-- we don’t know it’s really helpful.”

“other than some budgeting

worksheets ... we don't really have

any concrete materials that we would

give out that is really related to

gambling specifically”

COUNSELOR RESOURCE USE

+

"often there’s not

enough time to review

things--like, we come

back from workshops

so there’s some great

information but ...

When do you find the

time to you know, take

some of that home?

Sometimes there’s

lots of information

and not enough time

to sift through it."

“[The networking group] … We get together and

share resources ... as much as people can

contribute and share where they get their

information from, there isn't really anything to show

you how to use that information effectively."

•new materials and integration practices are drawn from central

repositories like problemgambling.ca, professional development

training, networking with other providers, and from client referrals

•materials adapted or developed in-house are limited in quality

because of limited budgets for graphic design, etc.

•trusted sources like problemgambling.ca save time and money

“One-stop

shopping is

great!”

problemgambling.ca is one of

my biggest resources that I

totally rely on

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to my supervisor, Richard Schmid.

Thanks also to Kevin Harrigan, Sylvia

Hagopian, Candice Jensen, Stefan Krueger,

Jackey Lee, Vance MacLaren, Steffi Mathes,

Brendan Sheehan, and Heidi Stanley for

comments on drafts of my data collection

instruments and poster. Finally, my sincere

thanks to my participants for giving

generously of their time.

The results of this exploratory study suggest that within this group of Ontario-based problem gambling (PG) treatment professionals, the selection of a ‘toolbox’

of PG-related educational resources is primarily guided by recommendations by credible sources such as the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, fellow

professionals, and their own clients. They tend to rely on such sources due to limited time to review and evaluate new materials. The integration of these tools

into practice via referral, homework assignment or review in-session is guided by the goal of orienting and motivating clients toward participation in treatment by

empowering them. Factors reported by the participants as influential in their choice to integrate a given learning object into practice were, for the most part,

factors perceived to influence the acceptability and comprehensibility of the educational materials rather than achievement of content-specific objectives.