Mickel Hoback

Motivational Interviewing

This week’s reading covered motivational interviewing which seems to be used quite a bit with substance abuse treatment programs. These types of interventions are meant to be brief in which it is only a few sessions before the client is either moved on into some other type of treatment or released altogether. One thing that really stuck out with me was that the text stated that motivational interviewing is often times confrontational. This is sometimes true with programs such as the 12-step programs in which it is believed that being confronted by the darker side of their addiction is necessary in order to overcome the addiction. However many of the cases I have seen in with this type of intervention is used it is done in a respectful way and focuses in the beginning on building a rapport and understanding about what the behavior is doing for the individual. Within this type of intervention, the individual’s point of view about his own behavior is central to recovery and being judgmental can sometimes worsen the situation for the person.
The case illustration is the book in which a homeless man was hospitalized for issues related to his drinking was a story I had heard over and over again. I worked in an area in which several homeless individuals congregated and I had the opportunity to hear several different stories and many of them had problems of substance abuse. These individuals knew they had a problem and wanted to seek help however it was much easier to just go about their day to day activities than try and seek any type of help. Many could not or would not return to families out of shame or because their families wanted nothing to do with them while they were in this shape but in their current environment it was much easier to deal with their problems by the only means afforded to them at this time which was usually alcohol or drugs. In motivational interviewing the social worker starts where the client is and promote client engagement into programs that would be able to help them. I found it really odd that the homeless shelter here in Chattanooga says that if you are intoxicated you can’t stay there. I know there are rules in which to follow but it would seem that individuals with these types of problems would be the ones that would need the services the most. During winter months you can see several of them sleeping under bridges because they used alcohol during the day to escape their daily reality and then they are not allowed any type of assistance at night because they used alcohol. It seems to be a revolving door.
Motivational Interviewing does seem to be something I would use with future clients not only with substance abuse but other things as well. It appears it may be beneficial with substance abuse but from what I have read it looks like this would be used as an initial step toward other types of treatment programs for individuals that suffer many different types of disorders.