By Andy Fazzio, C1 Contributor
The essence of probation is focus on the probationer, helping them move toward better decision making and pursuing more productive lives.
It’s easy to lose sight of that. There are numerous competing and overriding priorities held by a variety of stakeholders. In addition, probation officers have the stress of huge caseloads, limited budgets, insufficient time, and distractions from their own lives.
One of the evidence-based, change-management tools that has been developed over the years, and has been applied to probation, is called Motivational Interviewing (MI).
We know it’s impossible to impose real change on people; it always comes from the inside out. MI is a client-centered approach designed to help the individual move toward specific goals using their own arguments as to why and how the change could occur.
History has shown that the bureaucratic processing of people, driven by quotas and forms, will simply not produce the results that the individuals, and society, need so desperately.
As a trainer, I have been fortunate to be involved in delivering extensive MI training at the Bexar County Adult Probation Department in San Antonio, Texas. The Department wanted to change its culture to a more pro-social, strength-based and client-centered approach, empowering both their colleagues and their clients.
One of the critical components in implementing MI in a practical way is first and foremost having buy-in from the leadership. It was so refreshing to meet and witness a chief that actually displayed with his presence, the decisions, attitudes and behaviors to instill the vision he had for his department.
Our initial approach in Bexar County was to present several 3-day MI introductory trainings followed by several 1-day MI review and practice trainings. In phase two, 16 probation officers, expressing the passion and appreciating the value of this change process, were selected to attend the 10-day intensive MI Train-the-Trainer course.
Most of these participants are natural leaders in their specialized areas: field management, supervision, sex offender supervision, community treatment facility operations, and gang enforcement. Even the assistant chief of the department attended all 10 days of this intensive training.
These 16 probation officers, now called Bexar County Adult Probation MI Liaison Officers (MILOs), began by supporting and reinforcing each other’s strengths as they would with their clients, using specific methods from the training. In this way, they were able to practice MI techniques and build a cohesive team of MI trainers within in the department.
Bexar County is now ready, willing, and able to utilize the 16 MILOs to train the rest of their department of over 450 staff members. They created a training calendar of one 3-day MI introduction training and one 1-day MI review and practice training every month starting from August and will continue until everyone at Bexar County Adult Probation is trained. They now have the in-house ability to deliver the 3-day MI introduction courses and the 1-day review and practice trainings, called Booster Trainings.
They are also trained to interpret, coach and give feedback to all their staff, using MI methods. This will insure that everyone receives ongoing support internally so that sustainability of change is built in to their daily operations.
This is the kind of leadership probation needs to implement proven, evidence-based practices for the good of the whole department and its clients.
Andy Fazzio is a trainer specializing in developing curricula and training Evidence-Based Practices such as Motivational Interviewing, Validated Assessments, and Case Plans for adult and juvenile probation departments. Andy has also worked with public and private school systems. He has worked with 12 state and over 100 county organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom. You can find Andy on LinkedIn and Facebook.