Can in-house, whole team training in motivational interviewing lead to changes in knowledge and confidence? Findings from an inpatient rehabilitation unit for people experiencing complex psychosis

The most recent NICE guidelines for mental health rehabilitation for adults with complex psychosis recommend training all staff in psychologically informed approaches such as motivational interviewing [NG181]. This project sought to understand the feasibility of training all staff in an inpatient rehabilitation unit and collaboratively developing ideas and strategies to establish a community of practice to support the transfer of these skills into routine clinical practice. This paper first reports the findings of a pilot training and demonstrates the implementation of feedback from participants to adapt ongoing training. Secondly, the paper reports the findings of a further two cohorts of training. The evaluation aimed to observe any changes in knowledge of, and confidence using, motivational interviewing to have conversations about change with patients experiencing complex psychosis. Staff who attended the training completed questionnaires at the start of day 1 and the end of day 2 training. The results show that staff knowledge of motivational interviewing and confidence using it improved following two-day training. Qualitative feedback highlighted that the practice exercises utilised during training were helpful and staff members found the gap between workshop days was useful to consolidate knowledge through practice. The staff team’s ideas for creating a community of practice include fortnightly 30-minute check-ins, a motivational interviewing noticeboard and away day sessions. Whilst this evaluation has not yet explored the long-term effects of this ongoing supervision, there are promising effects shared by the trainer. Recommendations are made for services considering this training in future.