Facilitating Behavior Change

(Printable version)

Training is required to develop the skills for successful motivational interviewing. The reader is referred to the following sources for additional information.

• Miller RH, Rollnick S. Motivational interviewing: preparing people for change, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2002.
  This is the classic text that reviews the background and theory of motivational interviewing.
• Rollnick S, Mason P, Butler C. Health behavior change: a guide for practitioners. Edinburgh, Scotland: Churchill Livingstone, 1999.
  This practical text is aimed at helping health care professionals assess readiness to change, provides suggestions for incorporating motivational interviewing in clinical practice, and presents examples for handling challenging situations that are likely to confront health care providers.
• Bodenheimer T, MacGregor K, Sharifi C. Helping patients manage their chronic conditions. California Healthcare Foundation. June 2005. Available at www.chcf.org/topics/chronicdisease/index.cfm?itemID=111768. Accessed 4/25/06.
  This publication provides a good introduction to health behavior change techniques. The California Healthcare Foundation developed a brochure, "Helping Patients Manage Chronic Conditions", which can be download from its web site (www.chcf.org) free of charge.

The following two articles discuss the application of motivational interviewing and health behavior change to medication management:

• Possidente CJ, Bucci KK, McClain WJ. Motivational interviewing: a tool to improve medication adherence. Am J Health-Syst Pharm 2005;62:1311-4.
• Scales R, Miller J, Burden R. Why wrestle when you can dance? Optimizing outcomes with motivational interviewing. J Am Pharm Assoc 2003;43(Supp 1):S46-S47.