All In On Recovery: A Community-Based Participatory Approach to Defining Recovery from Problem Gambling
Session Title
Treatment: Peer Support & Community
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation
Start Date
28-5-2026 12:00 AM
Abstract
We present findings from a study that employed community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to collaboratively develop a framework of gambling recovery grounded in the voices of individuals with lived experience. Fourteen individuals from the Massachusetts recovery community, including treatment providers and individuals in recovery, formed a Community Research Team (CRT). The CRT participated in six focus groups discussing facets of recovery specific to problem gambling. Rapid thematic analysis of the focus group meetings resulted in a recovery framework guided by both qualitative and quantitative data and refined throughout the iterative design of the study, enabling recovery community members’ voices to dominate the narrative of the results. The resulting descriptions of key aspects of gambling recovery such as definitions of gambling, gambling harms, recovery from problem gambling, and factors that support and undermine recovery, provide a novel framework of recovery specific to problem gambling and grounded in the experiences and priorities of individuals entrenched in the recovery community.
All In On Recovery: A Community-Based Participatory Approach to Defining Recovery from Problem Gambling
We present findings from a study that employed community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to collaboratively develop a framework of gambling recovery grounded in the voices of individuals with lived experience. Fourteen individuals from the Massachusetts recovery community, including treatment providers and individuals in recovery, formed a Community Research Team (CRT). The CRT participated in six focus groups discussing facets of recovery specific to problem gambling. Rapid thematic analysis of the focus group meetings resulted in a recovery framework guided by both qualitative and quantitative data and refined throughout the iterative design of the study, enabling recovery community members’ voices to dominate the narrative of the results. The resulting descriptions of key aspects of gambling recovery such as definitions of gambling, gambling harms, recovery from problem gambling, and factors that support and undermine recovery, provide a novel framework of recovery specific to problem gambling and grounded in the experiences and priorities of individuals entrenched in the recovery community.