Traditional parent counseling and caoching is very effective, but is also expensive. This opportunity to should be available to everyone who needs it. We aim to move Motivational Interviewing from a doctor's office to a computer.
Any parent should be able to access an online tool in which they introduce themselves, decide what they would like to accomplish, and engage in an interactive process to meet those goals and ultimately become a more nurturing parent.
Our proposed design will help parents to:
Assess their parenting
Improve their parenting
Lower their stress
Learn parenting tips
Decide what else in their lives they would like to change
On April 29th 2013, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled To Motivate Patients to Change, Doctors Stop Scolding. It describes a method many doctors and counselors are using to help patients: Motivational Interviewing (MI).
Instead of telling patients what to do and scolding them when they don't do it, clinicians ask the individual what changes he or she is willing and able to make, and then promote patients' desire, confidence and commitment to following through. -Laura Landro
This practice is still yet to be fully explored and understood, but has been proven effective in a number of frequent counseling cases such as substance abuse and gambling addition.
A YouTube video explains the process in more depth:
Simply put, we see this as an amazing opportunity to provide resources and internal motivation to all parents.
Quality parenting requires an empathetic relationship with one's child. A parent who has not developed that empathy is not likely to change their way by condescending lectures; it requires an internal shift. We hope that this process will inspire young parents to treat their child with more care and respect, especially those parents who would feel empowered by the potential impact they can have on their child.
We think so, but its awfully nice if we had some proof. As mentioned, MI has not been widely applied to parenting and requires some research.
To look a bit further into the feasibility of this concept, we contacted a number of experts in the field including Dr. Chet Fox from University of Buffalo's School of Medicine.
He offered excellent feedback and advice, specifically telling us to look into Mood Gym, an Australian online cognitive system that mimics cognitive behavioral therapy. It is free to use and has been indicated to be effective! This could indicate that one major hurdle, getting motivational interviewing out of an office and online, is closer to possibility than we initially realized. Dr. Fox also mentioned that a "computer is non-judgemental and patient" which may allow users to share more honest information and get better feedback toward their goals.
Dr. Fox also mentioned a topic worth investigating: measuring oxitocin, a hormone associated with trust. This could be applied in many ways, including the effectiveness in learning via a computer interface.
Additionally, he mentioned that simply getting the data that this program would collect could be a huge benefit to clinicians and provide additional functionality to this solution. Data points could include parents' sleep patterns and the amount of social support they receive from friends and family.
Overall it was a very positive conversation, and we were inspired by his support and interest in this technique!
As shown in the system diagram above, the user (a parent) will interact with a web interface, which communicates between a user and data processing center. Users will be asked to identify their goals such as:
Assessing their parenting
Improving their parenting
Lowering their stress
Learning parenting tips
As the interaction continues, the web interface will solicit more personal conversation with the user. Users' responses will prompt personal questions much like a counselor would ask during a motivational interview in a clinic. As the user shares more feelings, the interface will help guide them toward a stage where the user recognizes (if appropriate) that they could benefit from a change in their parenting technique.
This interface will record action plans determined by the user along the way, provide relevant factual information when appropriate, and solicit users to follow up on a timely manner with their new plan.
On the back end, all of these users' inputs will provide valuable data to psychologists and motivational interviewers who are looking to see what works and what does not work. They will have the opportunity to adjust interview styles and improve users' experience over time, while monitoring users' progress with data that is much cleaner than previously available.