We know health equity should be central to the work we do and incorporated into our organizations, our work with others, and ourselves, but it doesn’t always happen. This introductory and interactive training will explore common concepts and definitions related to behavioral health disparities, health equity and cultural and linguistic responsiveness, key factors that make people and communities healthy, and explore how history and policies have helped shaped what are communities are like today. 

April 25, 11:00 – 2:00, 2023. Registration information to come.
Trainer: Rebecca Bishop, MSW,  Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Equitable Practice, Intermediate

Webinar with Dr. Deborah Haskins. May 11, 10:00 – 11:30, 2023. Registration information to come.

Problem gambling is a preventable public health issue and community led approaches are an effective way to address shared community concerns. The field of problem gambling has been historically disconnected to community initiatives grounded in equity and social justice. Hence, partnerships and collaborations are essential to the acquisition of resources needed to realize shared goals.  Effective community-led initiatives collaborate with, recognize and build on the strengths, resiliency, and existing leadership in disproportionately impacted communities.  Community-Led development is an approach in which local community members work together to identify goals that are important to them, develop and implement plans to achieve those goals, and create collaborative relationships internally and with external actors—all while building on community strengths and local leadership. This intermediate training will define components of a community led approach, and explore ways to engage those most impacted by problem gambling to develop partnerships and an action plan to achieve common goals with community partners.

June 16, 2023: 1:00 – 3:00 EST. Registration information to come.
Trainer: Haner Hernández, Ph.D., CPS, CADCII, LADCI, Training and Technical Assistance Associate, Massachusetts Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Problem Gambling Prevention, Intermediate

Health equity means everyone has a fair shot at living the healthiest life possible and one of the first steps in ensuring that everyone has a fair shot is developing an action plan to help achieve equity in your  community. A community-driven health equity action plan is intended to create a roadmap for communities to take action on a health equity agenda that addresses priorities in their community. This  training will examine how communities can identify and prioritize health disparities to address by facilitating a community change process, collecting and analyzing data on health disparities to identity key issues, and how to develop an action plan to work towards achieving their communities’ health equity goals and outcomes.

June 2023. Registration information to come.
Trainer: Rebecca Bishop, MSW,  Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Equitable Practice, Intermediate

As many as 96% of people with problem gambling also meet criteria for another mental illness. People who are problem gamblers have among the highest rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, with one in five attempting suicide, about twice the rate of other addictions. There is a complex relationship  between problem gambling and suicide prevention and a clear intersection between these two behavioral health issues. This training utilizes a combination of didactic presentation and interactive case studies and focuses on problem gambling and suicide prevention concepts and terminology, the similarities and differences between problem gambling and suicide prevention, how to assess if an individual has a problem gambling disorder or is at risk for suicide, and questions and strategies to ask to get the individual the support they need.

June 2023. Date/time and registration information to come.
Track and Competency Level: Intersections of Problem Gambling and Other Behavioral Health Issues, Intermediate

Prevention science focuses on the implementation of or the development of evidence-based and evidence-informed strategies to reduce risk factors and increase protection factors with an overall goal of improving the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and the community overall. The prevention field and research has been growing over the past few decades and can and has been utilized to address many behavioral health issues such as problem gambling. This introductory training will explore the history of prevention science; define common terms and concepts from prevention science such as behavioral health, the continuum of care, and the public health and social-ecological models; risk and protective factors for problem gambling, and how to apply prevention science to prevent problem gambling and underage gambling.

July 2023. Registration information to come.
Trainers: Rebecca Bishop, MSW,  Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention and Ben Spooner, Assistant Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Intersection of Problem Gambling and Other Behavioral Health Issues, Introductory

Identifying prevention approaches for emerging behavioral health problems such as problem gambling where the field is young can be challenging and we don’t yet have a lot of evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies with proven outcomes to utilize.  What we do have is a history of prevention in other behavioral health fields in knowing what works that we can draw from, and we can draw on that experience to develop strategies and interventions to address problem gambling prevention. One way to explore this is through the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory which explains how and why people adopt new behaviors. This advanced training reviews the DOI theory, Motivational Interviewing, and the stages of change including how various groups adopt new behaviors, and how participants can use the DOI theory and apply it to their behavioral health field of study or develop an intervention to reach key populations and change beliefs and attitudes.

July 2023. Registration information to come.
Trainer: Haner Hernández, Ph.D., CPS, CADCII, LADCI, Training and Technical Assistance Associate, Massachusetts Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Problem Gambling Prevention, Advanced

Sustaining working toward a just and equitable society requires a long-term and sustained effort. It takes time to bring people on board, agree on a plan, and put it into action. Strategic communications are essential to advancing racial justice to garner buy-in from community partners and address these critical issues with the community. Innovating and experimenting is also a critical part of the change process. This advanced training will help participants identify their audience, goals, and outcomes as well as strategies to advance health equity and social justice in their community. It will also explore how to strategically communicate the importance of centering health equity with various audiences to  develop partnerships, gain buy-in and develop and action plan to implement strategies that are sustainable to achieve the intended goals and long-term outcomes.

August 2023. Registration information to come.
Trainer: Rebecca Bishop, MSW,  Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Equitable Practice, Advanced

The prevalence of co-occurring gambling addiction and substance use is high. Approximately 1 in 10 compulsive gamblers report being concerned about their substance use, and research shows that people with a history of substance misuse are at higher risk for problem gambling. There is a complex relationship between problem gambling and substance misuse and a clear intersection between these two behavioral health issues. This training explores problem gambling concepts and terminology, the similarities and differences between problem gambling and substance misuse, implications for prevention and intervention strategies, as well as opportunities for collaboration between the substance misuse and problem gambling prevention fields. 

September 2023. Registration information to come.
Trainers: Rebecca Bishop, MSW,  Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention and Ben Spooner, Assistant Project Director, Massachusetts Center of Excellence for Problem Gambling Prevention
Track and Competency Level: Intersection of Problem Gambling and Other Behavioral Health Issues, Intermediate

Once communities have a common understanding of prevention science and how problem gambling intersects with other behavioral health issues such as substance misuse and suicide, the next step is to identify and implement strategies and ways to address multiple behavioral health issues as well as evaluate these efforts to see if they are impacting shared risk and protective factors and achieving the intended outcomes. This advanced training will examine the unique intersections of problem gambling and other behavioral health issues, identify strategies that can address shared risk and protective factors with a focus on filling gaps on ones that are not currently being addressed in the community, as well as how to collect and monitor data to illustrate the effectiveness of these strategies to build community buy-in to sustain these efforts in the long term to improve people’s health across behavioral health issues.

November 2023. Registration information to come.
Track and Competency Level: Intersections of Problem Gambling and Other Behavioral Health Issues, Advanced