CABHP Touts Event's Success
Center’s Motivational Interviewing Academy scores big in Sedona, Arizona.
The Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy (CABHP) hosted its first Motivational Interviewing (MI) Academy at Summer Institute July 14-18, 2009 in Sedona. Twenty-two attendees took part in an intensive, week-long, MI training workshop conducted by CABHP Clinical Associate Professor Dr. Robert Rhode. The program included lecture, video, and peer practice through the use of audio-recorded sessions.
Various assessments were used throughout the course of the training to allow attendees to receive feedback. Included in these assessments were the Video Assessment of Simulated Encounters (VASE-R), knowledge questions, and evaluations of attendees’ audio-recorded sessions using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity 3.0 (MITI 3.0) tool.
Scores from the VASE-R, a video-recorded vignette used to assess MI skills, were collected at the beginning and end of the Academy. Attendees improved their skills significantly during the week, demonstrating a mean VASE-R score at the start of 21.7 points (out of 36 points), and reaching a mean score of 28.5 at the conclusion of the Academy.
Attendees also answered a set of knowledge questions that assessed their awareness of various MI skills and strategies. As with the VASE-R, participants’ scores significantly improved, with the average score rising from 43.6% to 64.7%, with one score as high as 90% at the conclusion of the Academy.
Improvements in scores were supported by attendees’ self-reports on their mastery of the various learning objectives of the Academy. Attendees reported improvements on 7 of the 8 learning objectives, including:
• I am currently effective in using the three components of Motivational Interviewing “Spirit” to increase client motivation.
• I have adequate knowledge of Change and Sustain talk.
• I possess the skills to use the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Scale (MITI) to supervise and provide feedback to clinicians.
• I possess the skills to respond to Resistance talk.
• I possess the skills to help clients experience dissatisfaction with their risky behaviors.
• I understand at an expert level the ideas and principles of MI.
• I feel proficient and able to use MI at an expert level in practice.
Attendees said the most useful component was the feedback they received on the sessions they conducted and recorded with fellow attendees during the course of the Academy. Digital recorders were used to capture 5-10 minutes sessions, with one attendee serving as the clinician, the other a client.
Attendees received feedback on their use of various MI skills during their sessions, such as their proportion of open-ended versus closed-ended questions, their ratio of reflections as compared to questions, whether or not they gave advice or directives (not consistent with an MI style), and other items. Attendees had the option to continue receiving this form of feedback through December 2008.
CABHP hosted a Spring 2009 MI Academy on April 22nd-24th and will also be conducting a Fall 2009 MI Academy on September 30th-October 2nd. Both events sold out and we are currently taking reservations for our Spring MI Academy scheduled for March 17-19, 2010. Please contact Linda Williamson at linda.williamson@asu.edu for additional information.
