Reflection Paper Andrea Calderon SB02269 The speaker from the Zion Social Service, Yuk Lai Hin

Counselling Centre, gave us a background of the center, it has been open for 7 years, they focus on providing support for psychological health of problem gamblers. This center is located in Hong Kong and the major gambling areas are horse racing, mahjong, and mark-six. This center opened because since 2007 gambling has been view as an increasing problem, but Hong Kong government rejected the total ban of gambling, but instead approved a proper control of gambling. The goal of the center is to provide guidance and treatment to gamblers and their families. Their services include: prevention, professional training, and treatment. For prevention, the center creates awareness campaigns, during the presentation a video was shown were drama was used to teach youth about gambling addicts and their effects on their families. The center invites former problem gamblers to share their story with the students. The intervention services of the center use multiple approaches such as group work approach, building leadership skills where they empower the problem gamblers to say no to gambling, family involvement and religion to treat problem gamblers. The center uses religion to reinstate the sense of belongingness, values and confidence of the problem gamblers. They focus on the problems gamblers body, heart and soul. The treatment varies from individual to individual some can last from 8 to 10 sessions, or range from six months up to two years to solve a case. Usually the process of treatment goes through a course where assessment is the fist step followed by individual treatment and then group therapy, and then focuses interpersonal relationship, and the behavior of the patient

The center also provides support and financial services to some cases. They help individuals file for bankruptcy in extreme situations. The center has a hotline and most of the calls are made from a family member of a problem gambler. 1239 problem gamblers and 169 family members of problem gamblers have approached the center. 1057 are males and 182 are females. They have has a 67% of success rate which is measured by whether the problem gamblers can really stop gambling. The term stop gambling depends on the cases. Problem and or pathological gambling is a process: 1.Do not gamble 2. social gambler 3. problem gambler 4. pathological gambler 80% of Hong Kong Residents have gambled before but not all become problem gamblers. Some cases were discussed during the presentation, Case 1 showed a pattern in gambling behavior, which was the problem gambler always asked for money from the family but wouldnt stop gambling. In this case the treatment intervention would focus on the family and teaching them how to stop helping the problem gambler. This is considered as a turning point because the problem gambler would have less likelihood to gamble because he will not have the resources. The other cases showed how some problem gamblers have irrational beliefs and opinions about gambling such as I can gain more money if I just keep gambling. Another case showed that the family member of a problem gambler needed more support than the problem gambler such as a wife that wants a divorce due to the gambling problems of a long history gambler. Frequent problems that problem gamblers or pathological gamblers face are financial problems, being homeless, losing a job, divorce, family problems, depression, anxiety, interpersonal relationship problems among others.