Reflections on poverty, homelessness, and problem gambling: Discoveries from a world café

Abstract

Problem gambling is a hidden public health concern, especially among people who experience poverty and homelessness, with studies from North America showing a combined prevalence of lifetime problem and pathological gambling ranging from 29.8% to 58.2%. Service providers in the non-addiction sectors (e.g., housing and primary health care) have not traditionally screened their clients for problem gambling behaviours or concerns. In an effort to build multi-sector awareness and stimulate discussion about problem gambling, poverty, and homelessness, we invited practitioners from the social, health, and human services community and people with lived experience to join a knowledge translation and mobilization event in which we used the World Café method. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the knowledge generated about problem gambling, poverty, and homelessness from the perspectives of the World Café participants. We identified themes that align with quality of care espoused by the World Health Organization, Health Quality Ontario, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. These themes include delivering care that is highly accessible to clients who are experiencing poverty in a one-stop shop that is timely and efficient, patient centred and equitable with respect to gender and sexual orientation, culturally sensitive, and trauma informed and that provides a therapeutic alliance and safe space to enhance well-being. Participants identified the need for a plain-language, accessible definition of problem gambling and the need to create awareness of the harm associated with problem gambling in targeted messages that engage clients, policy makers, and the general public.