Poster presentation prepared for the Alberta Gambling Research Institute Conference (2013), Banff, AB. In the past decade, problem gambling (PG) has become a prominent public health issue (Peller, LaPlante, & Shaffer, 2007). Organizations such as the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) have invested in educational 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. In an exploratory study, semi-structured interviews with 6 gambling counseling specialists and participant-submitted artifacts were used to describe the process of the selection of problem gambling-related client education materials from the treatment provider’s perspective, identifying perceived barriers and facilitators impacting how this sample of treatment professionals integrates materials in practice. Elements of Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory methodology were applied to describe and group factors that may affect the perceived usefulness and efficacy of PG educational materials among treatment providers. This poster presentation highlights educational resource design factors including readability, interactivity, and alignment between instructional strategy and educational goals concerning the development of psychosocial skills. The counselors’ experiences with the use of various materials are discussed from an instructional design perspective, and may inform future research into best practices for the development of client education materials for PG treatment.

1. 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.