Motivational interviewing techniques can help convey varied risks for people with multi-morbidity, such as obesity, smoking, blood pressure and physical inactivity, to support patient-centred goal setting. There is often a gulf between knowing what is healthy and employing that knowledge to change behaviour. Simply 'telling patients what to do' can paradoxically produce resistance to behaviour change and rejection of advice, resulting in unsatisfactory consultations and frustration when patients appear ambivalent or refuse to help themselves (McKenzie et al., 2018). Understanding how the disease burden of long-term conditions (LTCs) impacts on ability to adopt behaviour change is vital when giving feasible and acceptable advice. The style of conversation and how behaviour change suggestions are phrased makes a huge difference on impact (Rollnick et al., 2007). Out-dated approaches involving finger-wagging, heaping blame or fear, or simply 'giving the answer' are ineffective at triggering behaviour change. Motivational interviewing (MI) techniques can help GPs explore the patient's agenda and convey factual knowledge to develop fruitful shared decision-making discussions.
展开▼
