Intro or Booster MI Skills Region X

I’m thrilled to share that my HIV research partner, Rebecca Dillingham, and I have been named the 2020 Innovators of the Year by the University of Virginia’s Licensing and Ventures Group. This award is for our work on our platform to help people living with HIV to achieve optimal clinical outcomes, called PositiveLinks.

See the official announcement here: https://lvg.virginia.edu/news/2020/announcing-the-2020-innovators-of-the-year?fbclid=IwAR2JXrXp47kS0zxTa_ABPLI1bR1QgPQ6-TUKInAnkxOcL7QeO_J0cF-tUo0

For the last few years, I’ve spent a few weeks in June in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, South Africa with a team of American students helping the University of Venda (UNIVEN) School of Health Sciences and the District Health office to integrate MI skills into health care.

As in the U.S., chronic health conditions are highly prevalent in South Africa, and are typically managed in nurse-led clinics and by local community health workers.

Last year, I was fortunate to lead a team of 6 UVA and 6 UNIVEN students as we conducted MI training for community health workers in two clinics, then observed them in the field as they tried to integrate MI skills into their work with patients.

This year, I took a UVA medical student, future Dr. Susan Gutierrez, and worked again with the 6 UNIVEN nursing students (Hope Skolo, Zandie Sibeko, Marshall Ndou, Tshilidzi Nema Rola, Awelani Matidza, and Mphonyane Makhumisane) and beloved colleague Mary Maluleke to implement 5 days of MI training, with pre and post standardized patient interactions, to help nursing students and professional nurses to learn MI skills.

At the end of the first day of training, one of the professional nurses emphatically stated: “We should have had this training 20 years ago!  All nurses should learn MI!”

Job well done, my beloved team.

In early July I  traveled up to our nation’s capitol to work with the Senior Executive Leadership Team at the Community Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) on how to use MI to skillfully lead teams.  This team is committed to an inspiring vision of humane treatment and fostering growth among staff and among clients.  I came back energized and excited!

I’m looking forward to the first week of June, when  will be training with a dedicated group of counselors in Georgia who are using PRI’s Solutions intervention.  These clinicians will be practicing their MI skills and learning about MI Groups.  I’ll be co-training again with Chris Wagner, along with David Rosengren and Larry Walton of PRI.

Last week in Williamsburg, Steve Clarke gave a daylong workshop on using brief interventions with college students, with great information on how colleges can consider what services they may need in the context of what they already have.  I followed this up with a daylong workshop on BASICS skills, with about 1/2 of the day focusing on the 4 processes of MI and the second half on specific BASICS implementation skills.  This coming week, we’ll be on the road again, this time in Fredericksburg.  In October, we’ll do it again in Amherst.  These workshops are FREE. To find out more, or to register, check it out here.

New Review of MI in Groups!.

CHOICES Training and Coaching.

There’s an exciting consortium of schools and universities in Virginia implementing the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) program. This program combines elements of Cognitive Behaviorally-based skills training and the communication style of Motivational Interviewing. I conducted a 1-day training on BASICS on March 14, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Thanks to VCU and UVA for cosponsoring this event! We left eager to implement BASICS to reduce drinking-related harm to young adults. Please download the Powerpoint presentation we used for the training if it can be helpful in your work! Link to the presentation here:

Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students March 14 2014

I was lucky to spend a couple of days with collaborators and friends up in South Dakota last week, where we did the first ever training on CHOICES GROUP!  This intervention, based both on the CHOICES intervention targeting drinking and contraception, and the model of MI Groups articulated in Chris Wagner’s and my book, MI in Groups, will be pilot tested soon in a couple of different locations serving native women at risk for Alcohol Exposed Pregnancy.  These investigators and counselors are taking important steps to help the Oglala Sioux tribe prevent future FASDs.  Thanks to all for hosting me yet again! 

I had the pure pleasure of providing a 2 day training for Piedmont Care Advisors who work with medical patients with chronic illnesses. They were nurses and social workers with lots of expertise and experience who were completely committed to helping their patients and eager to learn MI. They tackled it with gusto, and from my perspective, the event was a big success. What a pleasure as a trainer to have such wonderful participants! Thanks to evolent Health for arranging this great opportunity to learn and share.

I’m sharing my slides if you’d like to review them. These are really suited to a training with focus on health care, disease management, and patient engagement:
MI for Piedmont Care Managers July 2013

Here are some additional resources that could extend the learning. They are a supervisor’s guide, and a sample scripted MI session developed for telephone delivery to enhance patient engagement to an Internet intervention. Download these below:

Supervisor Guide – Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing to Enhance Engagement in an Internet Intervention for Diabetic Driving

There’s a review of our book by Dr. Leeman in the journal Social Work in Groups.  Here is the citation:

Dana Grossman Leeman PhD MSW (2013) Motivational interviewing in groups: Applications of motivational interviewing by Wagner, C. C., & Ingersoll, K. S., Social Work With Groups, 36:4, 374-378, DOI: 10.1080/01609513.2013.796443

Here is an excerpt:

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE, TEACHING, AND TRAINING

Prior to reading this book, my knowledge about MI was limited. After reading

this book, I am interested in seeking training and integrating more of this into

BSW and MSW curricula. Today’s field is demanding it, and this book is a

response to the yearning for greater knowledge and skills and the practical

integration of different perspectives (MI and group work).

I think this book belongs on the syllabi of clinical practice courses,

group work courses, in social work and psychology programs. It is scholarly,

accessible, and highly engaging. I have referred to it several times since

first picking it up. I recommend this book to practitioners, teachers, field

educators, and researchers. Field educators will find examples of interviewing

questions that may provide ballast and comfort for anxious social work

students who are looking for the words to say to their clients. This book

comes at a much-needed time in the field, and I hope others will find it as

useful as I do.

My wonderful colleagues Joel Porter, Chris Wagner, and I presented a 2 day workshop on MI groups in Sheffield England earlier this month.  Thanks to Jeff Breckon at Sheffield Hallam University for doing all the arranging, and to Judith Carpenter for persisting in making it happen!  We have wanted to present this workshop in the UK for 2 years, and now that our book Motivational Interviewing in Groups is out (already on the second printing!) we were doubly excited.  Participants included the most excellent Mo Almond, Claire Lane, Tim Anstiss, and other MI luminaries.  Wow, what a treat.  I’ll come back any time my English friends!

Following the MI groups workshop, we took the train down to Chelmsford and visited Anglia Ruskin University, where the indomitable Fiona McMaster has taken a faculty position.  Fiona had us present a daylong MI symposium, and my plenary and workshop on MI in Health Care was beyond fun to present!

Lastly, I can’t fail to mention the most wonderful joint birthday celebration ever, which saw Joel, Chris, Judith, and I board the short plane hop to Dublin, with weekend frivolity following!  I am so lucky to have such cherished, smart, and fun-loving friends.

I presented a paper on our HIV mHealth/text messaging project, and a poster on our upcoming AEP internet intervention at the  International Society of Research on Internet Interventions meeting in Chicago in May!   My colleagues generously included me on several other presentations at this meeting.  We got a lot of interest in our projects, and I was especially excited to share our mHealth work.

Ingersoll, L., Dillingham, R., Freeman, J., Hettema, J., Hosseinbor, A., Wispelway, E., & Reynolds, G.  (2013, May 16-18).  Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a bidirectional text messaging tool to promote HIV treatment adherence among non-urban substance users.  Paper presentation at the 6th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Ingersoll, K., Ritterband, L., Velasquez, M., Borzelleca, J., & Johnson, S.  (2013, May 16-18).  Reducing Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy Risk: Transforming Successful F2F Interventions into an Internet Intervention.  Poster presentation at the 6th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Lord, H., Ritterband, L., Palermo, T., Law, E., & Ingersoll, K.  (2013, May 16-18).  Efficacy of an Internet Intervention for Insomnia among Adults with Co-Morbid Pain and Sleep Disturbances.  Poster presentation at the 6th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Ritterband, L., Thorndike, F., Lord, H., Frederick, C., Gonder-Frederick, L., Ingersoll, K., & Morin, C.  (2013, May 16-18).  A National (US) Trial of an Internet Intervention for Insomnia (SHUTi): Pre-Post Findings.  Paper presentation at the 6th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Singh, H., Gonder-Frederick, L., Hilgart, M., Ingersoll, K., Ritterband, L., & Cox, D.  (2013, May 16-18).  Developing and Evaluating an Internet-based Intervention to Assess and Reduce Driving related Risks in People with Type 1 Diabetes: Lessons Learned.  Paper presentation at the 6th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

Singh, H., Gonder-Frederick, L., Hilgart, M., Lord, H., Ingersoll, K., Johnson, S., Cox, D., & Ritterband, L.  (2013, May 16-18).  Blood Glucose Awareness Training (BGAT) for Women with Type 1 Diabetes Contemplating Pregnancy: An Internet-delivered Intervention.  Poster presentation at the 6th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.

I’m excited after having presented an oral paper and 2 posters at the Society of Behavioral Medicine meeting in San Francisco.  These papers represent what I’ve been working on most recently, included some on Alcohol-exposed pregnancy risk reduction interventions, Training doctors to do Motivational Interviewing for smoking, Novel Internet interventions based on successful face to face psychological interventions, and Text messaging to improve HIV medication adherence.  It was great to hang with my technology and MI colleagues and a former RA who’s now thriving running suicide prevention programs for the state of California.  We had many good meals and treats while there, and were blessed with lovely, sunny weather.

Ingersoll, K.S., Ceperich, S.D., Hettema, J., Farrell-Carnahan, L., & Penberthy, J.K. (2013, March 20-23). An RCT of 3 Preconception Motivational Interviewing Interventions to Reduce Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy Risk. Citation Abstract Winner.  Paper presented at the 34^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.

Strayer, S., Ingersoll, K.S., Pelletier, S., & Conaway, M. (2013, March 20-23). Motivational Interviewing in Primary Care: Current Practices in Smoking Cessation Counseling.  Poster presented at the 34^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.

Ingersoll, K.S., Dillingham, R., Reynolds, G., Hettema, J., Freeman, J., Hosseinbor, A., & Winstead-Derlega, C. (2013, March 20-23). Process  Analysis of a Bidirectional Personalized Text Messaging Adherence Intervention for Rural HIV+ Drug Users.   Paper presented at the 34^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.