NEWS & UPDATES

New 2010 International Conference

"The Re-Greening of our Lives" in Malaysia

 Click on this link for a brochure:

 http://www.buildmotivation.com/images//sarawak%20-%20malaysia.pdf

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New 2010 International Conference

Coping Resilience &  Hope Building 

Asia  Pacific Regional Conference                                       

Brisbane, Australia

 9-11 July 2010   at Griffith University campus

The Coping, Resilience and Hope  Building  Asia Pacific Regional  Conference Brisbane 2010 will bring together practitioners, community activists and academics working in the trans-disciplinary area of human coping, resilience and hope building to present on the fascinating capacity of human resilience to most adverse life events. The Conference aims to advance evidence-based practices. Organised as a sequel to the C&R Conference Dubrovnik 2009, the Brisbane Conference will attract participants from the Asia Pacific region.  Papers, presentations, narratives that focus on Strengths based practices around the world will be tabled at this conference 

The conference will be held in the beautiful City of Brisbane at the Griffith University, Nathan Campus. Brisbane flanked by the Sunshine Coast, about 2 hours to the north, and the Gold Coast, 1 hour to the south is city is a green and leafy city. At Brisbane there is plenty to do and see before and after the conference.

Conference themesThere are a variety of approaches to study coping and resilience and hope building. Viewed from Strengths perspective papers that address inherent strengths of individuals, families groups and organizations. Deploying peoples' personal strengths to aid their recovery and empowerment- will be received at this conference.

Some illustrative topics are listed bellow:Cross-cultural patterns of coping with hardships; Coping patterns and resilience factors in migration and acculturation; Personal and developmental factors in coping and resilience- Interventions for children and youth to enhance resilience in adverse circumstances- Strengths based Interventions in the field of education, from early schooling to tertiary initiatives; child protection and safety- Resilience after loss and grief; Poverty, structural inequalities and  human resilience: implications for policy making- Challenges of coping with disability and mental health issues; Gender issues in coping and resilience.- Strengths based refugee acceptance policy development; Humanitarian Policing; Resilience mechanisms in recovery from individual and collective trauma; Posttraumatic growth after extreme suffering-  Challenges of reconciliation in multi-ethnic and post-conflict societies. Best practices in helping individuals in crisis; in empowering communities Asset based community development. Spirituality as a coping resource; Spirituality, healing systems, alternative therapies and meditation in enhancing resilience  Remote rural communities, indigenous people and coping with life challenges; -Strengthening resilience through e-communities and use of information technology  Resilience development and hope building in urban communities. 

Who will be at the conference?The range of topics at the conference program make it directly relevant to psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, rehabilitation, counselors and psychotherapists, GP’s, cultural anthropologists, NGO activists, community and humanitarian workers; spiritual leaders; emergency services, defense, police; justice and legal professionals, human rights advocates and policy makers; academics, Senior Managers in Business and Industry and educators.

 Click on this link for more information about this upcoming conference:

The ATTC network and the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) are disseminating the MIA: STEP package (downloadable at www.nfattc.org) as a tool to help agency supervisors train and coach their staff in motivational interviewing (MI).   

 As part of the dissemination plan, Mr. Clark has completed the MIA-STEP train-the-trainer session held in Cincinnati, Ohio in July of 2008 and has delivered training to MI knowledgeable supervisors/managers in the use of MIA: STEP. 

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  NEW TRAINING IN 2010

MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING ASSESSMENT - 

SUPEVISORY TOOLS TO ENHANCE PROFICIENCY (MIA-STEP)  

"Supervisory Coaching of Motivational Interviewing: Build Staff Proficiency (and keep it enduring) With Skill-Rating and Feedback"  

Description: 

Creating a safe environment in which counselors can critically examine the quality of their MI counseling skills is both challenge and necessity for agency management.  Learn what supervisors and managers can do to provide ongoing support in building and sustaining clinical MI skills. With so much MI training occurring across the state, learn how to “bring it home” with in-house supervision efforts. Review the MI rating system developed by a NIDA/SAMHSA blended initiative and explore feedback and coaching efforts that will keep your staff on task for continued development of their MI skills.   

Objectives: 

1. Review Motivational Interviewing Assessment: Supervisory Tools for Enhancing Performance (MIA: STEP) as adapted from the Yale Adherence Competence Scale  

2. Learn how to affirm your staff’s recognition of a client’s strengths and change efforts 

3.  Examine the MIA: STEP adherence (frequency and extensiveness) rating       guidelines 

4.  Review and appraise the MIA: STEP skill level rating guidelines

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NEW TRAINING IN 2010

Action Plans and Next Steps:

Moving from Integration to Enduring Department Practice   

The failure of “one-time” skill-based workshops is due, to a large degree, to insufficient training as well as organizational barriers that are not addressed by the training workshop format.  Organizational barriers include: 

Oversight: Is there upper-management training and necessary buy-in? Are supervisory staff trained in shaping practices to change staff behavior? This involves supervision and managerial prompting the increase of model implementation.  

Process:  Do agency processes effectively and efficiently support the goal of implementing Motivational Interviewing? 

Procedures:  Are established agency procedures adequate to support the implementation goal? 

Discussions and “next steps” planning will address how both paper-work and procedures may need to be adapted and modified. Review seven (7) “must do’s” for insuring that changes begin and to find the ongoing support they need to endure.

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Mr. Clark's career bio as a forensic social worker has recently been            published in a new (2007) publication:

Roberts, Albert R., Springer, David W. & Brownwell, Patricia (2007) "The Emergence and Current Developments in Forensic Social Work" In A. Roberts and D. Springer (Eds.), Social Work in Juvenile and Criminal Justice Settings (3rd ed. pp. 2-24) Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas

Click Here to download a PDF copy of this chapter excerpt

BALONEY WATCH!  

 HELP US FIGURE THIS ONE OUT

 Cited in the book, "Ashford, Jose B., LeCroy, Craig W. & Lortie, Kathy L. (2006) Human Behavior in the Social Enviornment:  A Multidemensional Perspective (3rd ed) Brooks Cole

 "Because the strengths perepective does not advocate considering the helper as expert, strengths-based interventions are a function neither of best practices nor of definitions of strengths defined in terms of specific factual criteria (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).  To put it more simply, in this appraoch, judgements about behavior are not based on knowledge or facts."  (p. 6)

 This becomes a greater concern when one considers that this is a 2006 publication date!

Drop us an email and we'll post your views  or ideas as to what might be driving this perspective/stance.