Motivational Interviewing with Substance-Using Adolescents

Motivational Interviewing with Substance-Using Adolescents

Target Group:

Teachers and staff from the psycho-social-educational field

Description:

Many adolescents have experiences with alcohol and other drugs. Some stop at exper­i­men­ta­tion, others develop risky consumption habits, jeop­ar­diz­ing their health and life development. How do you deal with adolescents who consume legal and/​or illegal drugs: Do you turn a blind eye? Do you punish them? Do you ​“lecture” them about the harmful effects of drugs? Would you like to help the adolescents, but don’t know how? This training aims to present new ways of talking about the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. One goal is to support the par­tic­i­pants of the training in using their pedagogical contacts specif­i­cal­ly for brief inter­ven­tions that can promote behavior changes in adolescents.

During the training, the par­tic­i­pants will get to know some strategies and methods that are mainly based on the concept of Moti­va­tion­al Inter­view­ing (Miller & Rollnick).

The presented methods can improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion between adults and adolescents. However, they cannot and should not replace the necessary referral to further help in individual cases. The questions of possible appli­ca­tions and limits of these brief inter­ven­tions in everyday pro­fes­sion­al life will also be discussed.

Objectives:

Knowledge
The par­tic­i­pants know:

• general standards of pro­fes­sion­al con­ver­sa­tion
• the model for explaining and influencing behavior changes (Prochaska & Di Clemente)
• strategies and methods based on the principles of ​“Moti­va­tion­al Inter­view­ing” (Miller & Rollnick).

Skills
The par­tic­i­pants are able to:

• understand the state of mind of the adolescent through active listening and respond to it
• recognize and, if possible, strengthen the motivation for a possible change.

Attitude
The par­tic­i­pants:

• reflect on their own attitude towards drug use
• maintain an open-ended and appre­cia­tive con­ver­sa­tion.