MOTIVATE is a Pilot projects co-funded by the European Commission, in the Leonardo Da Vinci Programme.
The full title is: Motivational Skills Training in Health and Social Care
It recognises the following objectives:
- To improve the quality of, and access to, continuing vocational training
- To promote and reinforce the contribution of vocational training to the process of innovation
SUMMARY
Preventable ill health makes up approximately 70% of the burden of illness and associated medical costs [Koop, 1995].
Some 50% of preventable mortality and morbidity is due to risk behaviours and lifestyle issues
(such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, poor diet and lack of exercise) [McGinnis and Foege, 1993].
However, many health and social care workers do not have the fundamental core competencies of motivational skills
(such as: listening, negotiating, exploring, supporting decision making, enhancing client confidence, facilitating self-learning)
since this topic is poorly addressed in vocational training.
In order for practitioners to promote healthy behaviours and self care and to provide peer support for other professional colleagues,
they need to develop these motivational skills.
Traditional training approaches for Health and Social Care stress diagnosis and knowledge of best evidence and lead them towards
a "fix-it" role.
Yet knowledge of risk is insufficient to motivate people to change.
Faced with the lack of skills in this area a group of clinicians and academics from the partnership identified
the need to provide workers with training so that they might better deal with chronic diseases and their prevention.
Meeting this need is in line with The Copenhagen Declaration (November 2002).
The idea of providing motivational skills training is in the mainstream of each partner institution and emerging as an
important part of the national educational/health care priorities of the countries involved in the project,
e.g. in Belgium, health priorities related to smoking cessation and diabetes prevention encourage engagement with motivational issues;
in Slovenia, policy on preventative actions to control risk factors for cardiovascular diseases highlight behaviour
change as crucial for success; in the UK, the White Paper "Choosing Health" stresses supported self-management.
The main goal of the project is: to formulate EU Standards for training in motivational skills
by developing a European Health and Social Care Motivational Skills Training Programme through work-based action learning initiatives.
The direct beneficiaries of the project are:
health care and social care workers, university teachers and trainers, other educational institutions.
The indirect beneficiaries are:
patients, representatives of other sectors e.g. managers,
organizations involved in organization development, local authorities, schools and colleges, NGOs.
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