graham-book

Dr Hermine L. Graham, Honorary Lecturer and Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the School of Psychology, has recently published a book which looks at alcohol and drug use intervention.

The book is an easy to use treatment manual for a brief motivational intervention to change alcohol and drug use. It encourages health practitioners to engage clients in short burst meaningful dialogue about the impact of alcohol and drug use on mental health. It combines Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, motivational interviewing, and Dr Graham’s own cognitive-behavioural integrated treatment (C-BIT) to work with clients with mental health problems using meaningful dialogue about changing alcohol and drug use.

It utilises the short ‘window of opportunity’ when clients are admitted to psychiatric hospital or have recently relapsed, and helps clinicians to maximise the potential of this ‘teachable moment’.

Helpful tools such as session-specific content, illustrative case material and easy-to-use worksheets facilitate implementation of the approach across a range of settings including inpatient, community, and residential. The manual has been developed by an expert team with many years of experience in both research and practice in the fields of psychosis and addiction.

The book is titled ‘Brief Integrated Motivational Intervention: a treatment manual for co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.’ It follows the findings of a pilot randomised controlled research trial that used a CBT-based brief motivational intervention to engage and reduce alcohol and drug misuse in those with severe mental health problems who are admitted to mental health in-patient wards across Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust (BSMHFT).

As Principal investigator, with a leading team of Co-applicants, Dr Graham was awarded a grant of £234,269, by the National Institute for Health Research-Research for Patient Benefit to fund the pilot trial.

She led in the development of this innovative treatment approach alongside Professor Alex Copello, Dr Emma Griffith and Professor Max Birchwood and co-trained 33 multi-disciplinary inpatient and specialist staff to deliver the intervention as part of their routine work on hospital wards.

Reference
Graham, H.L., Copello, A., Birchwood, M., Griffith, E. (2016). Brief Integrated Motivational Intervention: a treatment manual for co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.