Gambling Council hosting workshop in Boulder Sept. 26-27

Pub Date: 9/1/2008
The Montana Council on Problem Gambling (MCPG) has scheduled its fall training workshop for clinicians Sept. 26-27 at Boulder Hot Springs just outside of Boulder which lies about 35 miles south of Helena.

Linda Graves, the problem gambling program manager for the state of Washington's Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, will be the featured instructor. Social workers, professional counselors, chemical dependency counselors, schools counselors, mental health case workers and probation and parole workers are encouraged to attend.

The workshop will explore the basic building blocks of problem gambling counseling including clinical definitions, the progression of the disease in the gambler and his/her family and screening and assessment instruments, including a practice treatment plan development using the 6X5 treatment planning matrix.

There will be films, other guest speakers, small-group activities and open discussion.

The workshop will yield 10 CEUs for participants and will cost $100 $75 for Friday only (7 CEUs) and $35 for Saturday (3 CEUs). Checks should be made out to the MCPG and sent to P.O. Box 50071, Billings, MT 59105.

The Montana Gaming Advisory Council, Montana Coin Machine Operators Association, Gaming Industry Association, Montana Tavern Association and Montana Gambling Control Division all support the MCPG's activities which includes organizing and paying for group therapy sessions for problem gamblers, a 24/7 toll-free problem gambler help line staffed by trained counselor, training for clinicians and public education regarding problem gambling.

The group is planning to expand treatment therapy sessions onto Montana's Indian reservations and to offer programs targeting adolescent gamblers. It also operates treatment groups in the Montana Women's prison.

A spring workshop will be conducted in Missoula in April, 2009, and a fall workshop will take place in Billings in Septemebr. The MCPG maintains a web-site where treatment provider contacts are listed among other information at .

Source: The Montana Tavern Times, September, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.