Applying Motivational Interviewing Strategies to Facilitate Secure Firearm Storage During Clinical Encounters-Part 2: Technical Strategies.

Abstract

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based clinical approach that aims to assist patients in navigating ambivalence and in building motivation and commitment for behavior change. MI may be an especially helpful approach in lethal means safety (LMS) counseling, given the challenges in encouraging patients to adopt new firearm storage practices. The purpose of this 2-part series is to demonstrate how MI strategies might be applied to evoke motivation to change firearm storage practices. This column builds on part 1 of this series, in which we provided a rationale for considering an MI-based approach and discussed how the relational foundation of MI may help facilitate LMS counseling. In part 2, we focus on the technical strategies we use to evoke motivation to change behavior (eg, language and tools), including the use of "ask-offer-ask," recognizing and reflecting change talk, and using importance rulers.