Did you know you can’t motivate someone to change, but you can encourage them to take the first steps once they have reached the right place in their life? Or that the most sustained motivation is likely to be intrinsic, not extrinsic? (Think ‘wants to make more friends’ rather than ‘trying to make family less anxious by getting out a bit’).

Well I didn’t know, but now I do, as I got the chance to sit in on a Motivational interviewing course run for Time to Shine Project Workers, by Ana Paula Nacif from Quantum Leap.

The training was requested by a number of workers whose role it is to find and encourage individual older people to join a local activity. Many of the projects have identified anxiety, or lack of confidence being as likely to stop older people from joining in as the need for a grab rail by their front door or the lack of easy to use transport.

Motivational interviewing uses active listening to engage clients, clarify their strengths and aspirations, bring out their own motivation for change and promote autonomy in decision- making.

The course has given us all some new ideas to think about and try to put into practice; to help us identify when people might be ready to move forward, what sort of bridges we could use to get people started on the journey and how to be really active listeners, accepting that some people are just not ready to change yet.

So thanks Ana, I feel motivated to organise more training and support for us all.

Jessica Duffy
Time to Shine Learning Facilitator