Do You Gamble? Gambling Behavior, Problem Symptoms, and Self-Awareness among Social Workers and Other Mental Health Providers

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To explore the personal gambling behavior and problem symptoms of social workers and other mental health providers to gauge their level of self-awareness, an important prerequisite to identifying and assisting clients who gamble.

Method

A survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 2,317 social workers and other mental health providers.

Results

Bivariate and regression analyses found that than 76% of participants reported gambling in the past year, and nearly 30% gambled at moderate or high frequency. About 5% reported one or more problem gambling symptom. Nearly 78% of participants, endorsing between two and ten gambling activities, denied they gambled, and 23% gambled at moderate to high frequency. Overall, 55% of all participants with at least one problem gambling symptom denied gambling.

Discussion/Conclusion

It is critical for providers to receive training and education to understand their own gambling behaviors and problem symptoms, which could adversely impact the therapeutic relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health providers
• gambling
• problem gambling
• addiction
• treatment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.