An exploratory study of the impacts of gambling on affected others accessing a social service

Problem gambling affects many people beyond the problem gambler themselves. Help-seeking is relatively rare among affected others, especially those in lower socioeconomic communities. However, these affected others are sometimes in contact with other support agencies. The present research interviewed 10 people seeking support through a social agency who reported being affected by someone else’s gambling. Data from semi-structured interviews were analysed using an inductive descriptive approach to identify three themes: 1) This is ugly; 2) It affects everything; and 3) I just do it by myself. The results highlight the normality of harmful gambling across generations, the lack of any positive aspects to gambling for affected others, and the impacts on families and children. Specific gambling-related help seeking remains rare, however the opportunity to provide support, information and advice on approaches to coping to affected others as they contact social services is highlighted

All in the family: help-seeking by significant others of problem gamblers

Problem gambling can significantly affect the lives of concerned significant others (CSOs) of problem gamblers, especially family members, but little is known about their help-seeking activities and experiences. This paper explores help-seeking by CSOs of problem gamblers and their related motivators and barriers. A telephone interview was administered to 48 CSOs who called an Australian gambling helpline seeking assistance for themselves and/or a person with gambling problems. Key motivators for seeking help (through helplines, non-professional sources, and self-help measures) were concerns the gambling might become a major problem, negative emotions, problems maintaining normal daily activities, concerns for dependents’ welfare, and health concerns. Barriers included wanting to solve the problem on their own, and shame. Findings highlight the need to better equip CSOs to assist both the person with gambling problems towards treatment and recovery and to protect their own physical, emotional, social and financial wellbeing

Reasons for using web-based counselling among family and friends impacted by problem gambling

Despite the range of free services available in Australia, few family and friends of&nbsp;people with problem gambling access them. Over recent years, the Australian&nbsp;gambling help service system has expanded to include web-based counselling.&nbsp;Family and friends make up approximately 15% of people accessing this new&nbsp;modality, however little is known of the reasons for choosing this form of assistance&nbsp;over other interventions. This research aimed to understand the reasons family and&nbsp;friends choose to use single-session web-based counselling over other modes (i.e.,&nbsp;face-to-face and telephone), as well as why they would recommend it to other&nbsp;affected people. The study involved 63 participants (70% intimate partners, 13%&nbsp;children, 6% friends, 5% parents, 6% other family members) who completed openended&nbsp;questions on reasons for using and recommending web-based counselling,&nbsp;with over three-quarters of the sample seeking help for the first time. A descriptive&nbsp;content analysis revealed multiple overlapping themes, including ease of access&nbsp;(41.3% of reasons for choosing), privacy and anonymity (17.5%), and a preference for&nbsp;the characteristics inherent in the therapeutic medium (23.8%). We also found webbased&nbsp;counselling provided a pathway into services (11.1%) and that the intervention&nbsp;provided was viewed as helpful and a reason for recommendation (34.9% of reasons&nbsp;for recommending). This research provides important new information on the help seeking&nbsp;preferences of family and friends. Future research is required to understand&nbsp;the relationship between reasons for use, help-seeking preferences and the&nbsp;effectiveness of single-session web-based counselling for people affected by problem gambling.</span

Impact of problem gambling on financial, emotional and social well-being of Singaporean families

10.1080/14459795.2012.731422International Gambling Studies131127-14

An evolutionary approach to vector quantizer design

The primary aim of this study was to explore the prevalence and patterns of family violence in treatment-seeking problem gamblers. Secondary aims were to identify the prevalence of problem gambling in a family violence victimisation treatment sample and to explore the relationship between problem gambling and family violence in other treatment-seeking samples. Clients from 15 Australian treatment services were systematically screened for problem gambling using the Brief Bio-Social Gambling Screen and for family violence using single victimisation and perpetration items adapted from the Hurt-Insulted-Threatened-Screamed (HITS): gambling services (n = 463), family violence services (n = 95), alcohol and drug services (n = 47), mental health services (n = 51), and financial counselling services (n = 48). The prevalence of family violence in the gambling sample was 33.9% (11.0% victimisation only, 6.9% perpetration only, and 16.0% both victimisation and perpetration). Female gamblers were significantly more likely to report victimisation only (16.5% cf. 7.8%) and both victimisation and perpetration (21.2% cf. 13.0%) than male gamblers. There were no other demographic differences in family violence prevalence estimates. Gamblers most commonly endorsed their parents as both the perpetrators and victims of family violence, followed by current and former partners. The prevalence of problem gambling in the family violence sample was 2.2%. The alcohol and drug (84.0%) and mental health (61.6%) samples reported significantly higher rates of any family violence than the gambling sample, while the financial counselling sample (10.6%) reported significantly higher rates of problem gambling than the family violence sample. The findings of this study support substantial comorbidity between problem gambling and family violence, although this may be accounted for by a high comorbidity with alcohol and drug use problems and other psychiatric disorders. They highlight the need for routine screening, assessment and management of problem gambling and family violence in a range of services