A Flexible, Efficient & Effective Tool
Overview
Developed by Steven Cole, with contributions from Mary Cole, Connie Davis, and Damara Gutnick, Brief Action Planning (B.A.P.) (formerly called UB-PAP) is an innovative, evidence-based, efficient and effective communication tool designed for healthcare providers, health and life coaches to support self-management and motivate adaptive behavior change.
B.A.P. adheres to the spirit of “motivational interviewing (MI)” and is designed for initial motivational work with all individuals, regardless of readiness for change. Individuals engaged in persistent unhealthy behaviors (P.U.B.), however, often require more subtle emotional response skills, skills for understanding, or advanced motivational interviewing skills. Research indicates that more typical, conventional types of MI interventions show particular efficacy for angry, resistant, or ambivalent individuals; there are signals from this research, however, that conventional MI may be less useful, and possibly counter-productive, for individuals at higher readiness.
CMI online courses and workshops help learners master and flexibly integrate B.A.P. with more complex communication skills and, ultimately, advanced MI skills into a seamless clinical framework. CMI maximizes efficiency and effectiveness to facilitate healthy behavior change across all levels of readiness for change.
Three Core Questions
Brief Action Planning is organized around three core questions:
- “Is there anything you would like to do for your health in the next week or two?” (what, when, where, how often, etc?)
- “On a 0-10 scale of confidence, were 0 means no confidence and 10 means alot of confidence, about how confident are you that you will be able to carry out your plan?” (If confidence <7, initiate collaborative problem-solving.)
- “When would you like to meet again to review how you’ve been able todo with your plan?”
Five Additional Skills
- Presentation of a Behavioral Menu
- SMART Behavioral Planning
- Elicitation of Commitment Statement
- Collaborative Problem Solving
- Follow-Up
Decades of Research
Brief Action Planning rests on a solid foundation of decades of research in numerous areas of behavioral, psychological and communication research:
- Self-Management Support Research
- Self-Efficacy Research
- Motivational Interviewing Research
- Transtheoretical Stage of Change Research
- Rogerian Psychology
- Operant Conditioning
- Cognitive-Behavioral Theory/Therapy Research
- A-theoretical Psychotherapy Research
- A-theoretical Communication Research
Links & Downloads
- More on Motivational Interviewing at www.motivationalinterviewing.org
- B.A.P. Checklist (PDF 160KB)
- CMI Interview Guide (PDF 320KB)