New study to offer free online counselling for rural and remote people struggling with gambling disorders

trevor.kenney — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 21:51:16 +0000

For people living in rural communities and experiencing problems with gambling, the support and resources available to help them are often limited. A new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge study is seeking to help those struggling with a gambling disorder by offering free online counselling.

For people living in rural communities and experiencing problems with gambling, the support and resources available to help them are often limited. Dr. Darren Christensen and his team are bringing free online counselling to those in need as part of a new study.

Dr. Darren Christensen, the Alberta Gambling Research Institute Chair in Gambling and assistant professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and his research team (consisting of Dee Ann Benard, executive director, Alberta Rural Development Network, Drs. Chad Witcher, assistant professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Rebecca Hudson-Breen, assistant professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Trent Leighton, assistant professor, Faculty of Health Sciences) will test a contingency management approach to treat problematic gambling.

“The idea of contingency management is to compete with the benefits, or the fun, people might derive from gambling,” says Christensen. “One of the aspects that is most difficult about addiction is that you can drink, gamble, get high or have sex, and the reward is immediate. The difficulty in counselling is that the benefits accrue over time.”

Contingency management offers an immediate benefit, or reward, to the client for remaining abstinent.

“It uses our preference for immediacy, except we’re reversing it and providing a reason for participants to remain abstinent and still get something immediately,” says Christensen. “The important issue is that you’ve got to provide people with things that they value as rewards, they have to be meaningful for them and if not, the rewards aren’t sufficiently strong enough to motivate change.”

He says the study is unique on two fronts. Contingency management approaches have been proven effective in substance abuse treatment but have not specifically targeted rural people. Secondly, by bringing counselling into the home via an online approach, it is reaching a segment of the population that is often shut off from counselling resources and support.

“Those in rural and remote communities may find it difficult to access services, so this is an area that’s not currently being addressed,” says Christensen. “Typically, they would need to come to a larger community centre to receive treatment. Also, gamblers often feel shame and a stigma about their gambling problem. They don’t want other people to know, especially family members, about their problem so making counselling available to them in their own homes, where they can talk to someone about their issues is potentially a very effective process.”

Funded by the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM) and in cooperation with the Alberta Rural Development Network (ARDN), the study will run for 12 weeks, with participants eligible for three counselling sessions per week. Participants must either use a personal computer that has a video camera or access an available computer from an ARDN affiliate. Following a screening and consent process, participants will be randomized and split into two groups, one which will receive contingency management coupled with counselling, and the other just counselling. In both instances, the counselling is free to the participant.

To participate, contact Dr. Darren Christensen at 403-329-5124 or darren.christensen@uleth.ca.

For more information on the study: https://www.uleth.ca/healthsciences/gambling-counselling-internet.

Christensen appointed AGRI Chair in Gambling

trevor.kenney — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 21:19:43 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is adding to its capacity as an internationally reputed centre for the study of gambling and addictions following the appointment of Dr. Darren R. Christensen as the Alberta Gambling Research Institute’s (AGRI) Chair in Gambling at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Dr. Darren Christensen has studied gambling and addictions in a number of different countries and settings.

The five-year appointment, which saw Christensen arrive on campus January 10, 2014, adds another accomplished researcher with a global perspective to the fold.

“There were a variety of reasons for coming to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, the main being that the U of L has two of the more prominent gambling researchers in the world in Dr. Robert Williams and Dr. Robert Wood,” says Christensen, a native of New Zealand who most recently was a research fellow at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Melbourne’s Problem Gambling Research and Treatment Centre in Australia.

“They are very well known in the research community and this was an opportunity to work with and learn from people who are among the best in the world at what they do.”

The Alberta Gambling Research Institute, established in 1999 and funded by the Government of Alberta, is a consortium of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Its primary purpose is to support and promote research into gambling in the province. Each member institution will appoint an AGRI Chair.

"The U of L continues to be a destination of choice for leading researchers, in large part due to the excellent faculty we already have in place,” says Dr. Dan Weeks, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s vice-president (research). “Dr. Christensen is an example of this and adds even greater strength to the established gambling-related research programs currently running at the U of L. He also provides our students with a unique international perspective that can only serve to enhance their studies."

Born and raised in New Zealand, Christensen earned his bachelor of business studies in Human Resource Management from Massey ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ before going on to earn his master’s and PhD designations in psychology from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Canterbury.

Christensen has studied gambling and addiction in a number of countries and settings, including a two-year post-doctoral study in Arkansas where he worked at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Center for Addiction Research. He has recently studied contingency management treatment methods that use positive and/or negative outcomes to change the frequency of future behaviours as a treatment for substance abuse.

“Gambling is closer to substance abuse than people realize,” he says. “I look at gambling and substance abuse as all a part of human decision making. Where once it was thought of as an impulse control disorder, it is now recognized as a behavioural addiction.”

He sees the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as fertile ground for his research ambitions.

“I intend to start with a fairly broad research plan, looking at the basic science of addiction,” he says. “What is exciting is that there are so many collaborative opportunities here it allows me the chance to work with behavioural neuroscientists, addictions counselors and public health practitioners, among others. Studying gambling and other addictive behaviours from these different yet complimentary perspectives creates the opportunity for some real insight.”

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New study to offer free online counselling for rural and remote people struggling with gambling disorders

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Christensen appointed AGRI Chair in Gambling

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