Demographics and help-seeking among significant others contacting the Swedish gambling helpline.

Abstract

Aims: Concerned significant others (CSOs) to individuals that have gambling problems experience several negative consequences. Even though CSOs experience negative somatic and mental health consequences, there is an overall lack of research and available preventive or treatment strategies to help this vulnerable group. In Sweden, there is a helpline available to help individuals that gamble, but also helps concerned significant others. The aim of the present study was to investigate and describe facets of help seeking among CSOs who have called the Swedish national gambling helpline. Methods: The data was collected by personnel at the Swedish helpline. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared were used to analyze data. The sample consisted of a total of 4111 callers during a three-year period. Results: The results showed that CSOs constitute a diverse population with various needs for support. These needs can be linked to one's relationship with the individual who gambles (e.g. partners have different needs than parents). Moreover, CSOs have learned about the gambling problems in different ways and have known about the gambling problems for varying periods of time, which in turn affects what type of help they look for. Conclusions: The main implication of the study is that the CSO-group is diverse and has different needs when calling help services and different needs on an overall level. Prevention and treatment strategies need to adhere to this fact when creating different interventions to help this group.