1. Healthy Conversation Skills: supporting lifestyle behaviour change
Wendy Lawrence PhD CPsychol AFBPsS
Associate Professor of Health Psychology
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit
University of Southampton
NICHI Health and Wellbeing Event 29th November 2016

2. “I don’t have time to do any exercise ”
Types of Responses
Please write down the 1st thing you might say (just 1 sentence) if you wanted to help an individual who says this:
“I don’t have time to do any exercise ”
Swap this with your neighbour to keep safe for now – we’ll come back to these at the end.
Need post-its

3. Being given information makes people change AGREE DISAGREE

5. HOW?
WHAT?

7. Practictioners’ reflections on the training
“This has highlighted some extra skills that we’ve got there that we haven’t been utilising, which will actually get the client to give us more information and find solutions which I haven’t thought about previously.”
“We know paper doesn’t work and we give away a rainforest here, and you know why we give a rainforest away? So the patient can’t say we haven’t told them!”
“I found it really beneficial actually ... when we did the first day and you did the recording, I was like ‘Why?’ and then I thought ‘Oh my goodness, I’m using closed questions’ which I hadn’t thought of before. So it did make me think and I have certainly changed my behaviour.”

8. Having a “Healthy Conversation”
A volunteer please!
Modelling Healthy Conversation Skills
2 approaches to the same issue
2 minutes each approach
Spot the difference!
Who would like to volunteer to talk to me for just a few minutes about something they’d like to change?

9. HOW?
WHAT?

10. Back to those responses
Given what you’ve heard today ... consider the 1st thing you now might say if you wanted to help the person saying this:
“I don’t have time to do any exercise ”
With your neighbour, compare this response to your earlier one.

11. Healthy Conversation Skills interventions
Thanks to my colleagues at all these organisations, and the practitioners who have taken part in the training intervention around the world.
A randomised controlled trial of an intervention to improve the diet and body composition of young women and their children
Health Education
England (Wessex)
making-every-contact-count-mecc-practical-resources
New Zealand Ministry of Health
funded training of maternal &
child health providers
healthy-start-workforce/healthy-conversation-skills-training/
South Africa Project Ntshembo: feasibility of training community workers
ntshembo-hope/
LifeLab Southampton
training secondary school
Science teachers