—by Paul M. Kubek
Cleveland, OH—Service organizations that are integrating or wish to integrate Motivational Interviewing (MI) into their daily routines and organizational structures have a new resource available to them. It's a full-day supervisor's training, which was designed by consultants and trainers at the Center for Evidence-Based Practices (CEBP) at Case Western Reserve University who are members of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).
The new supervisor's training complements a menu of MI consulting and training services from the Center that is structured to help organizations develop the capacity to become self-sufficient at providing, supervising, and evaluating the effectiveness of MI for a variety of services.
According to Jeremy Evenden, MSSA (‘03), LISW, the CEBP emphasizes that "training for training's sake" is not likely to promote long-term change in service-provider approaches or consumer outcomes. Instead, there needs to be organizational structures in place to sustain and continually enhance methods learned during training events. These structures include organizational planning, evaluation, and commitment to ongoing quality supervision.
Evenden adds that this is why the CEBP includes organizational consultation with MI training. The Center engages in a readiness-assessment process with organizations interested in MI training. This helps program managers, team leaders, and supervisors utilize existing strengths and identify capacities that need to be developed to achieve the goals of sustaining the practice and improving consumer quality-of-life, as well as other outcomes.
Paul M. Kubek, MA, is director of communications at the Center for Evidence-Based Practices (CEBP) at Case Western Reserve University.