Gambling Leads To Poverty

Self-Management in the age of Complexity: An eHealth Tool to Support People Experiencing Gambling, Poverty and Homelessness

A developing body of evidence suggests that problem gambling prevalence rates are higher in populations experiencing poverty when compared to the gen- eral population. The temporal order of poverty and problem gambling remains unclear although some research suggests problem gambling precedes pov- erty. Gambling can cause a person to get evicted by making him unable to pay bills, by causing divorce, by causing a breakdown of the family support structure, or even due to injuries caused by dealing with criminals involved in gambling. The decision to gamble can lead to things far more dangerous and tragic than simply being without a home. Raising Awareness: multi-sector engagement to enhance understanding of gambling and poverty Principal Investigator: Dr. Flora Matheson Our team, including a Community Advisory Committee, and four talented students with backgrounds in film, journalism, graphic art and nursing, has co-created multimedia tools to communicate the link between. Gambling addiction poses a huge problem in Southeast Asia's second-poorest nation, and those afflicted can rarely find help. In a country where 33 percent of the population live on 50 cents a day, according to Cambodian government statistics, gambling is only worsening the poverty cycle.

Principal Investigators: Dr. Flora Matheson and Dr. Alireza Sadeghian (Ryerson University)

There are significant gaps in Canada’s current mental health and addiction services for people experiencing problem gambling. Problem gambling is often associated with substance use, mental illness, trauma, chronic illness, and disability. There is a strong association between problem gambling, poverty, and homelessness. Addressing these interconnected needs requires an integrated care approach that pairs self-management with service provision, a model which largely does not exist in Canada. Working with community partners and people with lived experience, we are designing, developing, and evaluating a mobile application to support people experiencing problem gambling.

The project is funded by CIHR/NSERC Collaborative Health Research Projects grant (2019 – 2022).

Raising Awareness: multi-sector engagement to enhance understanding of gambling and poverty

Principal Investigator: Dr. Flora Matheson

Our team, including a Community Advisory Committee, and four talented students with backgrounds in film, journalism, graphic art and nursing, has co-created multimedia tools to communicate the link between problem gambling and homelessness. These knowledge translation products feature documentary film, visual art, storytelling and a workshop.

We produced:

Problem gambling pamphlets for youth and women;
An animated whiteboard video developed for and informed by youth who have lived experience with trauma, poverty, and addiction;
A digital story about an adult male’s recovery from problem gambling;
A learning module for service providers to help them support clients experiencing problem gambling, poverty and homelessness
A written feature story about childhood trauma, substance abuse and problem gambling, and finding positivity in recovery.

See them on gamblingandpoverty.ca.

This project is funded by the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO)

Betting on Housing: Women, Problem Gambling and Homelessness:

Principal Investigator: Dr. Flora Matheson

Research on problem gambling and homelessness is predominantly male focused. This project is the first in Canada to research problem gambling among women experiencing homelessness. We will collect data to determine the prevalence of problem gambling among women who seek shelter services in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario. We will then interview 20 women in each city about their experiences of the relationship between precarious social and financial situations (e.g., single parenthood, interpersonal violence, immigration, debts, and unemployment), marginalization, and vulnerability to problem gambling.

This project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Good Shepherd Ministries Evaluation Project

Principal Investigator: Dr. Flora Matheson
Agency Lead: Br. David Lynch

According to Dr. Matheson’s research, there is a strong tie between homelessness and problem gambling. Services for people experiencing these concerns and other health needs are scarce.

The Good Shepherd Ministries partnered with us to implement a new problem gambling and homelessness intervention program for both men and women. The program provides clients with support and services for problem gambling and other co-morbidities, also offering skills training, goal setting and crisis intervention. In this project, we are evaluating the program to see how it’s helping clients, and identifying ways it can be improved.

This project is funded by the Trillium Foundation under the Local Poverty Reduction Fund

Optimizing Support and Service Delivery for Problem Gambling among People Living with Complex Needs

Principal Investigators: Dr. Flora Matheson and Dr. Sara JT Guilcher

Optimizing Support is a multi-deliverable study that will give people experiencing problem gambling (PG) and other health and social needs an alternative treatment option.

Gambling Leads To Poverty In America

Firstly, we are creating a Smartphone app to help people self-manage their problem gambling. Developed in collaboration with Dr. Sara Guilcher’s research team at the University of Toronto, the Good Shepherd Ministries, the Jean Tweed Centre, Fred Victor and the Biomedical Zone, the app will also be used in problem gambling service delivery.

It will be informed by:

Qualitative interviews with people who have lived experience with PG and other health and social concerns
A focus group with partner agency staff about client service delivery and support needs
A scoping review of self-management strategies for problem gambling

Secondly, we will be using Concept Mapping to conduct brainstorming sessions with a variety of healthcare providers to understand what knowledge, strategies and resources are needed to improve screening and treatment for PG.

This project is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Seeking Solutions to Problem Gambling in a Primary Care Organization focused on Health Equity

Principal Investigators: Dr. Flora Matheson and Dr. Andrew Pinto

In one of our previous studies, we found that many healthcare providers feel uncomfortable screening patients for problem gambling. In this project, we wanted to learn why.

We surveyed healthcare providers at St. Michael’s Hospital to know how they document problem gambling in electronic medical records and how they approach the topic of gambling to their patients. Our questionnaire was also embedded with information about gambling and gambling-related harms to raise their awareness. It assessed whether this information improved their understanding of problem gambling as a health issue, and also inquired about barriers to documentation. We found that the problem gambling documentation rate is 1 per 1000 patients, however, the prevalence of problem gambling in Ontario is estimated to be between 1% to 2.2%. Chart reviews indicated that the embedded gambling screening tool was not used by the Family Health Team Physicians and Allied Health Professionals. Also, health care providers said they would like to change their approach to PG and intended to use gambling screening tools.

This project was funded by the Gambling Research Exchange of Ontario (GREO).

Women Creating Community: Supporting Women to Manage Problem Gambling through Arts-Based Programming

Principal Investigators: Dr. Flora Matheson and Dr. Janet Parsons

Creative activity is a beneficial approach to recovery that can foster personal and social renewal. It is a known need in service delivery for women experiencing concerns with gambling and isolation. Dr. Janet Parsons from St. Michael’s Hospital and I are creating a free art program for women experiencing gambling concerns. It will be led by two occupational therapists, Dr. Clara Juando-Prats and Isabel Fryszberg, and informed by staff at the Jean Tweed Centre and Fred Victor, where the program will be delivered.

These exciting weekly workshops are modeled after Isabel Fryszberg’s art program for people experiencing mental health and substance use concerns, and Dr. Clara Juando-Prats’ art program for marginalized youth. Women will be invited to paint, draw, write songs, play music, journal, and create collages in a positive and communal space. The program will aim to reduce gambling-related harms, and promote a shift in identity from “person who gambles” to “artist.”

If you or your organization is interested in joining our advisory group for this program, please contact Parisa Dastoori at DastooriP@Smh.ca.

This project is funded by the Gambling Research Exchange of Ontario (GREO).

It is common knowledge that poverty and substance abuse tend to exist in tandem. The direction of causation is unclear, but the link between addiction and poverty is certainly to be considered.

A study by the National Bureau for Economic Research studied the relationship between poverty and drug abuse, specifically marijuana and cocaine. The study found that there was a positive relationship between poverty and substance abuse, even when controlling for various familial factors—implying that substance abuse may even be a casual factor of poverty. A limitation of the study was that it could not account for the drug usage of the homeless and others, which further strengthened the case that drug usage may be a causal factor of poverty.

And yet, it still isn’t that simple. The study had other limitations. The drug usage was self-reported, the population studied was highly biased (mostly poor already), and assumptions on preferences and educational effects (among others) could not be proved. Nonetheless, it seems that there is a definitive relationship between drugs and poverty, and perhaps even some causal effect.

Poverty and Addition: Directly or Inversely Related?

But could the causal effect also run the other way? Quite possibly. A study from Duke University found that economically stressed children later in life experienced higher rates of tobacco usage (but not binge drinking or marijuana). The researchers attributed this effect to poverty’s impact on self-control. Although the study did not find increases in marijuana usage or other drugs, the causal chain between poverty and eventual drug usage was established.

Although evidence seems to suggest that, to some degree, drug usage can “cause” poverty, extending this logic to an extreme would be absurd. Substance abuse is not the sole driving force behind the worldwide phenomena of poverty; people born into poverty cannot have been driven to poverty by drug usage. There must be more to explain the relationship that clearly exists.

Another research paper suggests that literacy, education, poverty, income equality and unemployment are factors that lead to drug abuse, further complicating the relationship.

Conflicting papers do lead to an obvious but important point. Poverty and addiction are interlinked. Conjoined at the hip, both issues feed off each other and their effects strengthen their respective feedback loops. Poverty leads to mental states which can lead to drug abuse which leads to addiction, which begets crime, which leads to worse employment prospects. A flow diagram to show the effects and directions that these two conditions could lead to would be a huge circular mess, with arrows flying in all directions.

The question then becomes, how does a government fight poverty or substance abuse? Based on existing evidence, perhaps the best answer is that one problem cannot be adequately addressed without also attending to the other.

Gambling Leads To Poverty Impact

– Martin Yim

Gambling Leads To Poverty Increase

Sources: NBER, Duke Medicine, International Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences
Photo: The Province

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