South Country Treatment Centre uses the Life Skills Educational Model with a group processing component for Inpatient Treatment for Problem Gambling. In using the Life Skills model coping, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and social skills are developed. The group processing component allows clients the opportunity
to identify and share both common experiences as well as solutions with other gamblers.
It allows time for the clients to personalize new skills and adjust them to meet their own unique needs. Processing also encourages clients to slow their generally frenetic pace of learning, leaving time for self evaluation and to confront irrational thinking processes.
The Life Skills Educational Model assists the client to think through problems for themselves and teaches them how to make their own decisions.
The ultimate outcome of this model is to increase a person’s freedom of choice,
with the emphasis on personal learning, which includes an ability to manage one’s life effectively with more confidence. This involves behavior changes and an accompanying change in attitude, as well as new ways of interacting, of thinking and of problem solving.
The Life Skills Educational Model benefits those participants who are rooted in reality, that is, those who are not actively psychotic, heavily medicated or under the influence of mood altering chemicals. The focus is on the client’s strengths and positives, instead of their past, the negatives of their gambling and what went wrong. Life Skills is a model that is “here and now” and solution focused and
draws from the resources of the client. In our Life Skills group the client will focus on areas of self-awareness, goal setting, decision making, balance in all life areas, problem solving, loss and relapse prevention.
Apart from learning and practicing new skills, the clients can also gain information and insight about themselves and various
aspects of their life. The clients can further gain self-confidence and self-esteem. Through attendance at Gamblers Anonymous meetings and the first four steps of Gambler’s Anonymous, the client can have their experience “normalized” and feel they are not alone or “crazy”. The
clients can gain a sense of relief in observing others in the group who present similar problems. The client can also learn appropriate ways of giving and receiving support.
As a final note, the Life Skills Educational Model is a complement to Brief Counseling that we
also use. The Life Skills Educational Model and Brief Counseling are both based on the “here and now” and are both solution focused.