Motivational Interviewing & Homelessness

This study evaluated motivational interviewing (MI) in a permanent supportive housing agency. The agency’s contradictory social service and business missions resulted in an incompatible organizational culture theorized to diminish MI’s effectiveness. A combination of observational, interview, and archival data collected over 3 years were used to examine MI implementation within an incompatible supportive housing agency. Two major themes arose: how MI is used to categorize and change clients in permanent supportive housing and how worker–worker relationships affect MI implementation. The results suggest that within incompatible organizational environments, key elements of effective MI implementation are greatly weakened.

Homeless young adults ages 18–25 exhibit high rates of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, and sexual risk behaviors such as unprotected sex. Yet few programs exist for this population that are both effective and can be easily incorporated into settings serving this population. This pilot cluster cross-over randomized controlled trial evaluates AWARE, a voluntary four session group-based motivational interviewing (MI) intervention to reduce AOD use and sexual risk behavior.

The current study evaluated the impact of a novel GMI protocol that included tobacco-specific components (referred to as ‘Tobacco GMI or T-GMI’) targeting enhanced engagement in smoking cessation treatment.

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