Diffusion of Innovations: Implementing Problem Gambling Prevention into Existing Behavioral Health Efforts

Thursday, Jan 11th, from 10:00 AM ET to 12:00 PM ET (Virtual)

Identifying prevention approaches for emerging behavioral health problems, such as problem gambling where the field is young can be challenging, and we don’t yet have a lot of evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies with proven outcomes to utilize. What we do have is a history of prevention in other behavioral health fields in knowing what works that we can draw from, and we can draw on that experience to develop strategies and interventions to address problem gambling prevention. One way to explore this is through the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory, which explains how and why people adopt new behaviors. This advanced training reviews the DOI theory, Motivational Interviewing, and the stages of change, including how various groups adopt new behaviors and how participants can use the DOI theory and apply it to their behavioral health field of study or develop an intervention to reach key populations and change beliefs and attitudes. 

Competency Level: Advanced 

Length: 2 hours 

Learning Objectives - At the end of this training, participants will be able to:  

• Describe the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory and the five types of idea adoption.  
• Describe the Trans-theoretical Model of Behavior Change and the five stages of change.  
• Describe Motivational Interviewing and how to incorporate the strategies and techniques into their practice and programs. 
• Describe at least five strategies and techniques on how to integrate problem gambling prevention, key aspects of the DOI Theory, and Stages of Change into existing behavioral health efforts.