GAMBLING DISORDERS 360°

Next month, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) will embark on its fifth annual Road Tour. Each year, the NCRG Road Tour travels to a new city to share information about the latest research on gambling disorders and make key stakeholders aware of the science-based programs and resources the NCRG has to offer. This year, the NCRG Road Tour will be visiting Boston, Mass., from July 26 – 27, and is excited to be partnering with the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling for several of the events.

The NCRG congratulates Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., on her new appointment as the founding chair of the University of Florida’s department of epidemiology.  Dr. Cottler is a long-time friend of the organization and serves in many roles, including the chair of the NCRG’s Scientific Advisory Board and a member of the advisory board for the NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction.

Toll-free help lines have been a common first line of intervention for addictive disorders for many years with successful statewide tobacco help lines leading the way. While there has been research on gambling help lines since the 1990s, to our knowledge there has not been a study tracking help-line callers from their initial call to attendance at a counseling session – until now. With the percentage of people with a gambling disorder who seek treatment from a counselor, psychologist or self-help group such as Gamblers Anonymous at only between 7 and 12 percent (Slutske, 2006), the ability of a help line to promote attendance at a counseling session is vitally important. A new study published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors provides data on the matriculation of people with gambling disorders from calling the help line to attending a counseling session and suggests potential best practices for increasing the number of callers seeking treatment (Weinstock et al., 2011).

There are many exciting new developments regarding continuing education credits for the 12^th annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction! Last week, we announced that the NCRG is an APA-approved continuing education sponsor. We just heard the news that the Employee Assistance Certification Commission (EACC) has also approved the 12th Annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction for 13 professional development hours.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) is pleased to announce that we are now approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. We are very excited for this new accreditation option! This achievement enhances the NCRG’s ability to offer advanced training, webinars and workshops on gambling addiction to the APA’s more than 154,000 members.

Click below for the NCRG blog team’s exclusive interview with Dr. Matthew Martens, associate professor of educational, school and counseling psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Nathan Smith, program officer for the NCRG, sat down with Dr. Martens to discuss brief interventions for problem gambling and gives advice to campus health professionals on how to address gambling and gambling-related harms on campus.

Last week, the American Psychological Association (APA) sponsored a “Mental Health Blog Party” where they encouraged everyone to blog about what mental health means to them, either as individuals or mental health professionals. More than 130 blogs were posted and more than 500 people participated on Twitter (hashtag #mhblogday), with topics ranging from depression and bipolar disorder to advising parents on how to talk to their children about drug and alcohol abuse. One concept that resonated throughout the wide variety of topics was the public’s misperception and stigma associated with mental health issues. The same is true for the field of gambling disorders. Even though pathological gambling was not addressed by any blogger for the APA’s blog party, we believe it is important for it to be a part of the conversation.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming has grown in staff and offerings over the past few months. We are certain you have noticed our new resource CollegeGambling.org. You also know about our new presence on Twitter (@theNCRG) and the expanded NCRG Webinar Series (make sure you sign up for the June 1 webinar!). We are also working to reach out to mental health treatment providers with valuable training opportunities, and we will keep you posted on those developments.

With these exciting events and more that are happening, we asked ourselves: Do our blog readers know the people behind all of the work at the NCRG? Let us introduce ourselves!

Did you know that the National Center for Responsible Gaming has allocated more than $700,000 to fund research that advances our understanding about gambling disorders in 2011? The last opportunities to apply for this year’s funding are quickly approaching. Start planning to submit your letter of intent for Large Grants and Early Stage Investigator Grants before the July 1, 2011 deadline.

The NCRG’s 2011 Webinar Series continues with its upcoming free session titled “College Gambling: A New Resource for Campus Professionals” on June 1, 2011 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT. The session will be valuable to anyone who works with college students on a day-to-day basis, as well as those who research gambling disorders in youth and young adults. Register today by clicking here or visiting the NCRG’s upcoming webinar session website.