I think the specialist and the world are focusing in this gambling issue,
Mental health and addictions specialists will gather to confront a taboo topic: recognizing and treating problem gambling among Asian Americans.
The conference is sponsored by the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Oregon Health & Science University, the Asian Health and Service Center and the human services departments of Oregon and Multnomah County. Its featured speaker, Eddie Yu-Wai Chiu, is director of the Asian Family Institute in San Francisco, which treats addiction through its problem gambling project.
Among the local speakers are Bounsang Khamkeo, a behavioral health counselor at the Avel Gordly Center for Healing at OHSU, and Dr. Paul Leung, director of OHSU's Intercultural Psychiatric Program and the Asian Health & Services Center.
Khamkeo and Leung talked to us about problem gambling among Asian Americans in Oregon. Their comments were edited for clarity and brevity.
Why are you concerned about problem gambling?
Leung: There's no data available in Oregon. But it's an open secret that when you go into the Asian community – Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian – you hear that a way people come together is to gamble instead of drinking or doing drugs.
For clinicians like myself, we all recognize there is an ongoing problem with gambling in our community. I have seen patients come in with depression, but as I inquire further into their history, the depression is a result of gambling away their whole salary.
Khamkeo: If you go to La Center Casino in Vancouver or Spirit Mountain Casino, you'll notice there are many, many Asians.That is the social recreation.
It is culturally acceptable to gamble at a birthday party or a New Year's party. Sometimes, parents give money to a child over 10 to gamble, just for fun. They don't see it could cause a problem.
What is considered problem gambling?
Leung: If you look at addiction, we are talking about a pathological situation. The person cannot get away from it or function. We're not talking about that.
Problematic gambling activities can mean someone is gambling, maybe secretly gambling, but it hasn't come to the point that they had to file bankruptcy or lose their family.
A significant portion of their salary goes to gambling. It may have caused some problems in the marriage, tension or conflict. But it hasn't caused a person to lose the ability to work or disrupted one's day-to-day schedule or life.
How do Asian American families cope with problem gambling?
Khamkeo: It's a loss of face. They feel shame coming for counseling. They ask me, 'Please don't tell my family.'
I ask them to bring in their spouse for family counseling, and even though they value family, they still don't want their family involved in treatment.
Leung: It is taboo. This is a shameful thing for any family to acknowledge that you have someone in your family because of his or her gambling destroying his or her life. Somehow, people still don't think gambling addiction equates to drug or alcohol addiction. They see it as a social thing, instead of a mental health or a pathological problem.
So families, they bail their loved ones out, they pay the debt, they continue to enable the person with the habit.
What does treatment for problem gambling look like?
Khamkeo: The problem is, they don't want to come for help unless they are mandated to by the justice system. The outcome of treatment is 50/50. It isn't easy. Attendance isn't good
We teach them how to take care of their money. You can not take your rent money to gamble. It's better to convince them to stop entirely. But even if they stop 50 percent, and gamble half as much, I'm happy, because many of my clients who come to see me have a long history of gambling so we can't solve the problem overnight.
Leung: Once the individual seeks help I can rally the family. You can look at medicine to ease anxiety. You can take financial control away from that person and give it to others. It's one step at a time, but you can curb the behavior.
Mental health and addictions specialists will gather to confront a taboo topic: recognizing and treating problem gambling among Asian Americans.
The conference is sponsored by the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Oregon Health & Science University, the Asian Health and Service Center and the human services departments of Oregon and Multnomah County. Its featured speaker, Eddie Yu-Wai Chiu, is director of the Asian Family Institute in San Francisco, which treats addiction through its problem gambling project.
Among the local speakers are Bounsang Khamkeo, a behavioral health counselor at the Avel Gordly Center for Healing at OHSU, and Dr. Paul Leung, director of OHSU's Intercultural Psychiatric Program and the Asian Health & Services Center.
Khamkeo and Leung talked to us about problem gambling among Asian Americans in Oregon. Their comments were edited for clarity and brevity.
Why are you concerned about problem gambling?
Leung: There's no data available in Oregon. But it's an open secret that when you go into the Asian community – Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian – you hear that a way people come together is to gamble instead of drinking or doing drugs.
For clinicians like myself, we all recognize there is an ongoing problem with gambling in our community. I have seen patients come in with depression, but as I inquire further into their history, the depression is a result of gambling away their whole salary.
Khamkeo: If you go to La Center Casino in Vancouver or Spirit Mountain Casino, you'll notice there are many, many Asians.That is the social recreation.
It is culturally acceptable to gamble at a birthday party or a New Year's party. Sometimes, parents give money to a child over 10 to gamble, just for fun. They don't see it could cause a problem.
What is considered problem gambling?
Leung: If you look at addiction, we are talking about a pathological situation. The person cannot get away from it or function. We're not talking about that.
Problematic gambling activities can mean someone is gambling, maybe secretly gambling, but it hasn't come to the point that they had to file bankruptcy or lose their family.
A significant portion of their salary goes to gambling. It may have caused some problems in the marriage, tension or conflict. But it hasn't caused a person to lose the ability to work or disrupted one's day-to-day schedule or life.
How do Asian American families cope with problem gambling?
Khamkeo: It's a loss of face. They feel shame coming for counseling. They ask me, 'Please don't tell my family.'
I ask them to bring in their spouse for family counseling, and even though they value family, they still don't want their family involved in treatment.
Leung: It is taboo. This is a shameful thing for any family to acknowledge that you have someone in your family because of his or her gambling destroying his or her life. Somehow, people still don't think gambling addiction equates to drug or alcohol addiction. They see it as a social thing, instead of a mental health or a pathological problem.
So families, they bail their loved ones out, they pay the debt, they continue to enable the person with the habit.
What does treatment for problem gambling look like?
Khamkeo: The problem is, they don't want to come for help unless they are mandated to by the justice system. The outcome of treatment is 50/50. It isn't easy. Attendance isn't good
We teach them how to take care of their money. You can not take your rent money to gamble. It's better to convince them to stop entirely. But even if they stop 50 percent, and gamble half as much, I'm happy, because many of my clients who come to see me have a long history of gambling so we can't solve the problem overnight.
Leung: Once the individual seeks help I can rally the family. You can look at medicine to ease anxiety. You can take financial control away from that person and give it to others. It's one step at a time, but you can curb the behavior.
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