Journal of Psychiatry

Behaviour change to improve individual health outcomes

Euro Global Summit and Medicare Expo on Psychiatry

July 20-22, 2015 Barcelona, Spain

Christine Horrocks

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

Behaviour change to improve individual health outcomes are all too often reliant upon self-change with growing concerns regarding the moral, social and economic implications of behaviours which are often deemed to be ?lifestyle choices?. In the UK interventions which target behaviour change to improve health outcomes for substance misuse take a variety of forms. Modes of delivery can be based upon voluntary participation or in some instances be part of coercive treatment community orders instituted by the criminal justice system and delivered by health practitioners. Participation in treatment more generally assumes voluntary participation; with protagonists already entered into narrative scripts that prescribe roles and types of engagement. How are these relationships changed when the ?client? is coerced into treatment? Using primary research the nature of coercive treatment in the community will be explored resulting in questions regarding how practice draws upon social cognitive models and the implications for behaviour change interventions when operating within the boundaries of abstinence based rehabilitation programmes. Notably, coercive treatment for substance misuse often relies heavily upon the ?transtheoretical model? of self-change yet the notion of ?readiness to change? seems at odds with the coercive nature of entering treatment. It is important to consider and investigate these theoretical and practical incongruities if we are to understand better the complex and challenging nature of substance misuse and supported change.