Looked after young people: Reducing health inequalities through an evidence- and theory-informed intervention

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to design and evaluate a health behaviour change intervention for looked after young people (LAYP), targeting sexual health, smoking, exercise, healthy eating and non-dependent alcohol and drug use.Design: A pre-post intervention evaluation was undertaken exploring health behaviours and wellbeing.Methodology: The one-to-one intervention was individually tailored to each person. Young people eligible for the intervention were aged 11 years and over and were 'looked after', meaning they were under a supervision order with a local authority, in Scotland, or were a care leaver. 144 young people referred to the intervention service between March 2009 and January 2014 were eligible for the evaluation. Evaluation data were analysed using standard statistical tests on SPSS.Results: Behaviour change techniques, including goal setting, action planning, barrier identification/problem solving, and motivational interviewing contributed to improvements in all areas. Difficulties with consent and follow-up were highlighted as barriers to effective evaluation.Conclusion: Improving the current health of LAYP looked after young people with a view to prevent future ill health using a tailored intervention with behaviour change techniques enables LAYP this group to improve health behaviours despite the numerous challenges in working with these vulnerable clients.

Motivational Interviewing as Evidence-Based Practice? An Example from Sexual Risk Reduction Interventions Targeting Adolescents and Young Adults

“…As we have shown in our results, many papers lack adequate detail on the particular MI protocol that was used and/or how practitioners were trained and their fidelity to the protocol assured. This is the case even for interventions where the training of clinicians in MI was a central aim of the intervention (Dale, Watson, Adair, & Humphris, 2016;Sanci et al, 2015). It is not surprising, then, that even fewer studies report on the specific MI elements that the interventions aim to assess the efficacy of.…”