Discover Your Knowledge of Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing: A Tool for Behavioural Change in Healthcare

• Prochaska and DiClemente proposed readiness for change as a mediator of behavioural change, and the Stages of Change model describes readiness to change as a dynamic process.
• Ambivalence is a conflicted state where opposing attitudes or feelings coexist in an individual, and it is particularly evident in situations where there is conflict between an immediate reward and longer term adverse consequences.
• The Stages of Change model offers a conceptual framework for understanding the incremental processes that people pass through as they change a particular behaviour, modelled in five parts: precontemplative, contemplative, preparation, action, and maintenance.
• Motivational interviewing (MI) is an effective counselling method that enhances motivation through the resolution of ambivalence, and it grew out of the Prochaska and DiClemente model and Miller and Rollnick's work in the field of addiction medicine.
• Recent meta-analyses show that MI is equivalent to or better than other treatments for decreasing alcohol and drug use in adults and adolescents, and it has also been shown to be efficacious in a number of other health conditions.
• MI is underpinned by a series of principles that emphasise a collaborative therapeutic relationship in which the autonomy of the patient is respected and the patient's intrinsic resources for change are elicited by the therapist.
• The practical application of MI occurs in two phases: building motivation to change and strengthening commitment to change.
• In Phase I, four early methods represented by the acronym OARS constitute the basic skills of MI, and eliciting change talk is important to motivate people to change.
• In Phase II, deciding on a change plan together involves standard goal setting techniques, using the spirit of MI as the guiding principle and eliciting from the patient what they plan to do.
• A quick method of drawing out change talk is to use an importance ruler or a confidence ruler to identify the discrepancy for a patient between their current situation and where they would like to be.
• Effective listening skills are essential to understand what will motivate the patient, as well as the pros and cons of their situation, and patients benefit from a truly collaborative therapeutic relationship.
• Barriers to implementing MI in general practice include time pressures, the professional development required in order to master MI, difficulty in adopting the spirit of MI when practitioners embody an expert role, patients' overwhelming desire for 'quick fix' options to health issues, and the brevity of consultation times.
• Practitioners who undertake MI training will have an additional therapeutic tool to draw upon when encountering patient resistance to change and a proven method for dealing with a number of common presentations within general practice.

Test your knowledge on Motivational Interviewing, a powerful counselling method for behavioural change in healthcare. Learn about the Stages of Change model, the principles of MI, and the practical application of the technique. Discover how effective listening skills and a collaborative therapeutic relationship can help patients overcome ambivalence and make positive changes in their lives. Challenge yourself with this quiz and see how much you know about this evidence-based approach to improving health outcomes.