Self efficacy enhanced

Nine students from our MSc Health Psychology (and one final year BSc Psych student who was VERY welcome) attended our recent workshop introducing motivational interviewing.  As part of the evaluation process, we measured their self assessed confidence in a range of knowledge and skills, pre and post training.  Nice positive changes observed, and lots of interest in further training.

More workshops coming soon, including:

Cognitive behavioural therapy techniques applied to health behaviour change.

Intermediate and advanced motivational interviewing - health promotion, primary prevention, long term conditions, substance misuse, working with groups, dealing with dyads, brief opportunistic interventions.

Intervention mapping - developing theory driven, evidence based programmes using proven health behaviour change techniques - especially relevant to public health.

Enjoyable student discussion, and some frustration too.

One hour plus meeting today with student on MSc health psych about his dissertation plans, and a piece of coursework he is about to attempt on my module M99PY Self management of chronic conditions.

Very interesting dissertation proposal on an aspect of caregiver burden in home-based care for dementia.
Good case study plan too - choosing a self management intervention for type 2 diabetes.

We had a very productive discussion - just wish I could spend an equal time with all the students I teach but the numbers mean that it doesn't bear thinking about.

Meanwhile have been writing a draft training programme in motivational interviewing for a public sector organisation - more later if we win the bid - and giving a two hour lecture to undergraduates on the discursive defense of threatened identities.  We were 'discussing' two key papers:

Horton-Salway, M. (2001) 'Narrative Identities and the Management of Personal Accountability in Talk About ME: A Discursive Psychology Approach to Illness Narrative.' Journal of Health Psychology 6, (2) 247-259
Willott, S. and Griffin, C. (1999) 'Building Your Own Lifeboat: Working-Class Male Offenders Talk About Economic Crime.' British Journal of Social Psychology 38, 445-460

...or rather I should say I was talking about them.  Only two students had actually read a paper in advance of the class, so the seminar discussion fell rather flat.  I think I may also have offended one student with my reply to her question: "What is the exam on? Are we having a lecture on the exam?"

I asked her how many lectures she'd had on the module and her exasperated response suggested that she knew what I meant but dared not say out loud (That the exam is on the topics covered in the lectures we've been having all year - or did you think I just turned up and lectured because I'd nothing better to do...?).

I fear I may have compromised my student satisfaction scores...

Oh and gave feedback to a PhD student who is champing at the bit to submit for ethical approval of her next research study (apologies for the horse metaphor Felicity)

slippage may occur

Teaching four hours non-stop is quite tiring...

'Psychosocial aspects of stroke' on MSc Health Psychology for two hours then straight to 'motivational interviewing' on MSc Forensic Psychology.  Some slippage between the terms 'patient' and 'offender' may have been evident...

Tick tick tick

Have just finished some marking on the Health & Lifestyle Management course - to meet our new super-fast feedback turnaround time - and it's the end of the working week already.  Students have said some nice things about their experience of the Health Behaviour Change module we offer, which includes the following: 

Motivational interviewing knowledge and skills refresher

MI with sent clients, with groups, in rehab settings.

CBT refresher

Lay-led and peer-led health behaviour change interventions

Classifying health behavioural change interventions

Publicly funded health behaviour change programmes in the UK and beyond

Intervention mapping : health behaviour change programmes in the UK and beyond

Key ethical issues in research on health and lifestyle management

Key ethical issues in practice in health and lifestyle management

The different roles played by professionals working in health and lifestyle management

Diversity awareness issues working in health and lifestyle management

Meanwhile - I have a new(to me via ebay) shed AND it's potato day at Ryton Organic Gardens tomorrow - my joy is complete...

Marketing motivational interviewing

Have been asked by a senior colleague for some quotes from our Motivational Interviewing course evaluations, which can be used to market the courses:

"This was very insightful and applicable outside of work also - helpful for reflective practice."


"I found it really interesting and I gained a lot from it. I would be extremely interested in taking it further, so if you could keep in touch with any potential opportunities or further training I would very grateful."

I also signposted her to the poster presentations I made at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference 2010, and the European Health Psychology Society conference in September. The poster be viewed at this link.

Have just noticed that the online shop link for the course doesn't mention that it is approved by the CPD centre at the British Psychological Society, so must get this sorted out today.

Emerging from the fog

Haven't had a terribly productive day due to brain fade associated with having a cold (why does it have this effect?), I think/hope I am now emerging from the fog.

I have a big backlog of stuff I wanted to do but didn't get done - mostly following on from the motivational interviewing and Verity/PCOS activities last week. Especially interested in the government's plans to shift responsibility for public health from the NHS to local authorities, and a call fromThe Kings Fund and Centre for Mental Health for greater efficiency in mental health services.

Big smoke for a couple of days

Rather annoyingly had news today that the student I spent half a day designing a personalised programme of retake work for last week didn't bother to turn up for the first scheduled meeting. Wondering sometimes why we bother...


Pleased to get an email today from someone who attended our motivational interviewing day yesterday, and hoping to develop an applied research collaboration as a result.  I always meet people working on interesting projects when I run these events, and it's nice to have a chance to find out more about their work.


Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days related conference activity.


Friday
PCOS UK (health professionals conference) , with topics including:

PCOS, Physical Activity and Insulin Resistance
Practical steps to tackling common dermatology issues
Living with PCOS - developing effective coping strategies
Reducing the quality of life impact of PCOS - top tips for primary care
Research Digest
Cardiovascular risk and PCOS - effective management strategies
The risks and benefits of bariatric surgery in the management of PCOS
 
Saturday
Verity (patient group for women whose lives are affected by PCOS), topics including:


Emotional impact of PCOS - Colette Harris
Get to know your menstrual cycle - Dr Lisa Webber
Alopecia and excess hair - Dr Alison Layton
Being slim with PCOS - Speaker TBC
Weight loss options for PCOS - Dr David Haslam
PCOS and your fertility - Professor Stephen Franks

Staying in a Travelodge so not taking my laptop and therefore no posts.  No offence Travelodge, I just don't fancy leaving it in boot of car all day.

A better day

A more productive day today (I think):

Training workshop on motivational, interviewing with some very engaged and interesting delegates. 

Was rather nippy in the Jaguar Building, but we just about coped.

One of the things we discussed was the use of motivational interviewing with children.  I suspect that there may be a need to adapt the delivery - perhaps by using graphics, games and stories, etc. that take into account children's level of socio-emotional and cognitive development - but haven't come across anything in print.

A couple of related papers are:

Gance-Cleveland, B. (2007). Motivational interviewing: Improving patient education. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 21(2), 81-88.


Söderlund, L. L., Nordqvist, C., Angbratt, M., & Nilsen, P. (2009). Applying motivational interviewing to counselling overweight and obese children. Health Education Research, 24(3), 442-449.

We also (briefly) mentioned various systems for rating the quality of motivational interviewing. See:

Forsberg, L., Källmén, H., Hermansson, U., Berman, A., & Helgason, Á. (2007). Coding counsellor behaviour in motivational interviewing sessions: Inter-rater reliability for the swedish motivational interviewing treatment integrity code (MITI). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 36(3), 162-169.


Madson, M. B., & Campbell, T. C. (2006). Measures of fidelity in motivational enhancement: A systematic review. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 31(1), 67-73.

Mastroleo, N. R., Mallett, K. A., Turrisi, R., & Ray, A. E. (2009). Psychometric properties of the peer proficiency assessment (PEPA): A tool for evaluation of undergraduate peer counselors' motivational interviewing fidelity. Addictive Behaviors, 34(9), 717-722.

Wallace, L., & Turner, F. (2009). A systematic review of psychometric evaluation of motivational interviewing integrity measures. Journal of Teaching in the Addictions, 8(1-2), 84-123.

Role play audio

Put some audio online today for a delegate from last week's motivational interviewing course.  We role played working with a number of different clients and recorded them to reflect on our practice.

Clients included:

‘Douglas’ - a man aged 25 years, who lives in a homeless persons shelter and is considering moving out. You meet Douglas while working as an occupational therapist in outreach. He really hates some aspects of living in the shelter, but is unsure if he’d be better off there or trying to find his own accommodation.

‘George’ - a man aged 65, who has had a lower limb amputation following complications of type 2 diabetes. George has been referred by domiciliary care as he has so far declined all offers of physical adaptations to his home.

 ‘Jane’ - a woman aged 45, who has been in the same job for 20 years and finds it unfulfilling. Jane heard about life coaching from a friend who found it useful and thought that you might help her decide whether she wants a change of career.

 ‘Mary’ - a woman aged 50 years, with a body mass index of 40.  Mary has been referred by her GP, as lifestyle advice has not resulted in the weight loss he has advised.

We focused on the four key areas of motivational interviewing:

• Expressing empathy
• Rolling with resistance
• Developing discrepancy
• Supporting self-efficacy

Our next course is on Wednesday 24^th November 2010. For further details and to book your place online see the online store.

Not NICE any more

Have had a bout of non-posting. I sometimes have a 'second wind' late evening and write something then, but from Weds to Friday last week I was finishing so late that I was too 'zausted to do so.

Wednesday - yet more data analysis; agreed to a PhD student from the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies joining my health psych masters module in the New Year.  She is researching links between military, traumatic injury and sport, so I will be very interested to meet her and find out more.

Thursday - a most stimulating and rewarding day running training in motivational interviewing at the Graduate Centre. Some good evaluation feedback from a delegate who is training in Occupational Therapy:
"Really interesting. Application to practice obvious."


Friday - back to project planning; and making some minor edits to the online submission of the research paper we submitted on Monday.  Hoping it will be sent out for review soon.

Today:
Met with another PhD student to review a draft of her survey on assistance dogs organisations.  Looking very positive.

Attended a progress review panel conducted by video conferencing with a PhD student based overseas. 

Meanwhile, a lot of health related stories in the news:

National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence will continue to advise the UK health service on effectiveness of medicines, but will no longer be able to approve/disapprove them being prescribed by clinicians.

A pilot in the Isle of Wight will offer girls from age 13 years up emergency contraception via community pharmacies.

A paper just published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that military personnel serving in Iraq had lower rates of mental distress than people in other 'high stress' jobs, such as UK police.
Another paper in the same journal highlights the link between exercise at leisure, and reduced rates of depression. I failed to go for my usual walk today - oops.

Deep in the data: And poor old Emperor

Today I have been deeply immersed in some data - one of the luxuries that comes from being on sabbatical. Had to emerge periodically to send out information about our motivational interviewing courses, and will be making an uncharacteristic visit to campus tomorrow to prepare course materials.

Have noticed a couple of rather sad animal stories on the web today:
1. Paul the psychic octopus has died - seemingly from natural causes.
2. Someone with nothing better to do has shot the UK's biggest red deer stag, preventing it taking part in the imminent rut.

The BBC news article on this is an odd mixture of advertorial for stalker/shooting businesses, and melancholy reflection on human pointlessness....

(pic above isn't him)

Which tracks?

Spent morning dealing with enquiries about our motivational interviewing courses.  Delighted that some psychology colleagues will be joining us on the courses in October and November.

Rest of day updating various contacts in relation to my grand research plans.

Also confirmed which tracks I will be attending at the forthcoming Verity conference in November.

Pic: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raccoon_tracks.jpg

Time for a trim

Spent today responding to enquiries about the motivational interviewing courses, and then trying to be ruthless with a research paper I've written on my PCOS research. 

It has a lot of qualitative data extracts in it, and I need to edit it from about 6,000 to 4,000 words.  When I last looked at it I found it impossible to decide which women's words could be cut out.  But if I want to have a chance of changing the way healthcare is offered in similar cases, I need to get at least part of the story published. A shorter paper that gets into print will have infinitely more impact than a longer 'richer' one that never sees the light of day.

Out with the metaphorical scissors I think.

Foraging

Another slightly taxing but (hopefully) productive day, split between more detailed project planning and marketing activities.

The online shop links for our motivational interviewing courses went up yesterday, just around the end of the business day, so I am now able to take bookings.

Now before it gets dark I must go outdoors and fill up the bird feeders with nigella - there are some rather cross looking goldfinches swarming around the garden who will expect their breakfast long before I surface in the morning.

Mapping out my hoped for future

Have spent most of today mapping out plans for a long term programme of research, which I hope will grow out of my current three month research sabbatical. Have been in touch with NHS colleagues in the North of England to meet up and discuss collaboration.  Unfortunately the exact plan is what, in these cash driven days is 'commercially sensitive', so I can't say more at present.

Meantime however, have also taken calls expressing interest in attending our next short course in motivational interviewing.  Am slightly concerned that the links for booking places are still not up on the cu online shop.  I have been assured that someone is working on it, but if you had hoped to book and can't see this link, please email me directly.

Coventry University
Introduction to Motivational Interviewing
Next course
Thursday 28th October 2010, The Graduate Centre, Coventry University

Thinking...

After a yesterday making lots of phone calls and trying to set up meetings, in connection with continuing professional development courses, I have decided to have a day devoted to thinking and organising my ideas.

I think I'd have been rather surprised when I set out on an academic career to find that so little time would be available to sit and think deeply about things - but that's how it has turned out.

So today, instead of giving in to the tyranny of email and short term targets, I am going to really concentrate on what I want to achieve in my PCOS work for the next three years, so that I have a truly coherent set of plans to discuss with potential collaborators.  I already have a long list of possibilities, so it's just a question of dreaming up the best possible outcome to aim for.  Wish me luck...

Degree redesign, "assistancedogblog" and motivational interviewing

Typical mishmash academic day today...

Degree review meeting again - to discuss the principles that will underpin the redesign of our undergraduate psychology programmes.

Also had my first look at the blog our PhD student Felicity has started to record progress on her research study on the psychosocial impact of assistance dogs.

Finally confirmed some dates for our next Introduction to Motivational Interviewing courses, which will soon be bookable via the Coventry University online store:

Thursday 30th September 2010

Thursday 28th October 2010

Image courtesy of wiki commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LiquoriceAllsorts2003.jpg

Back to more mundane things

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Here_comes_rain_again.jpg

Back from Eastern Europe to a very wet and miserable West Midlands.  Not the most exciting of days, but an interesting item in Nursing Times which has been drawn to my attention:

Motivational interviewing 2: how to apply this approach in general nursing practice

Must remember to cite this when talking to Endocrine Nurses later this month - and follow up on room bookings for our next Motivational Interviewing training day.

Cluj-Napoca Day 4

OK - getting a bit tired now - standing by a poster for an hour at a time is quite wearing on the feet.  You can probably tell this by the look on my face in today's picture.

The paper that made the greatest impression on me today was the Keynote, by Prof. Mircea Miclea, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Prof Miclea discussed in detail the Computer Mediated Psychotherapy intervention that he and colleagues have developed: paxonline.  What makes it distinctive is that it is multi-user platform, creating a community of learning that includes patients, family physicians and psychotherapists.  It also offers a stepped care intervention, designed to meet patients' needs at the point of initial help-seeking, rather than assuming that all people with mental health problems will want to, or be able to access face to face psychotherapy.

Although it's in Romanian, and won't go online until later this month, I think I'll have a look and run it through Google Translate.

Cluj-Napoca Day 1

hmmm... it's a quarter to nine here, so it must be ... quarter to seven there (UK) - I think.

Arrived in Cluj-Napoca today and been on a brief reccy of local area.  Turns out I am staying in hotel right next door to the University's Psychology Department - home from home.

But I want a nice cup of tea!