Continuing the conversation: 30 years of motivational interviewing dissemination

Abstract

when services only offer training in MI to those practitioners who express an interest in taking their careers in this direction?Much of this discussion occurs against a background of relative ignorance about what actually happens in everyday practice, surely an area in need of closer scrutiny? One of us (S.R.) has recently returned to working in the addictions field and one conclusion seems striking: it is messy; not a matter of using this or that discrete form of treatment, but integrating one approach with another, balancing the need for service requirements such as assessment and safeguarding with those of the client. What if the agenda for research was driven more by questions from practitioners in the field?Finally, Hall et al. raise the question of how to integrate MI into a service culture. The practice of MI rests upon a set of values that champion engagement with clients as a platform for all else, and doing things with them, not to or on them. Paradoxically, the less clientcentred the environment, the more might MI be useful, and the less likely it will be to flourish, to begin with. How to improve matters is not a matter of 'disseminating' treatments but integrating the findings of research into everyday practice. Declaration of interestsS.R. is a co-founder of motivational interviewing and has authored numerous texts on MI. Both authors provide MI training and consultancy.

Effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing on adult behaviour change in health and social care settings: A systematic review of reviews

“…There is no formal requirement for training in Motivational Interviewing or evaluation therefore practitioners can claim to use the approach without assessment, and competency is likely to influence outcome. Hall et al (2016) suggest that investment in training would need to be large to impact on change in practice [ 125 ].…”

Optimizing the Better Nights, Better Days for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders program for large scale implementation

“…To increase uptake of the BNBD-NDD program, participants need to be able to move ahead from the Preparation stage to the Action stage. Inclusion of motivational interviewing techniques to help move parents into the Action stage and adding coaching or support into the program may be helpful to increase program adoption (Hall et al, 2012). Suggestions pertaining to the RE-AIM elements will be used to modify BNBD-NDD for the upcoming Implementation study.…”