In addition to advice-giving, the common elements of successful
BIs are referred to by the acronymFRAMES, and include provision
of the following:
• Feedback on behaviour and its consequences to the client;
• Responsibility for change as the responsibility of the
individual;
• Advice for change;
• Menu of options for change;
• Empathy;
• Self-efficacy for change (Bien 1993).
These kinds of interventions were developed based upon the theoretical
assumption that people are not always ready to change their
patterns of substance use. In such cases, straightforward advicegiving
is of limited use and the adolescents need to recognise for
themselves that their behaviour is problematic and identify their
own reasons for wanting to change their behaviour. The development
of this brief method was guided by a number of principles,
it should be useable in time-limited consultations; the training of
practitioners should take between 12 and 15 hours; interviewers
should be able to raise the subject of behaviour change in a sensitive
and respectful manner; and the method itself should be flexible,
meaning that it can be used with individuals at various stages of
readiness to change (Rollnick 1995).Most BIs rely on principles of
motivational interviewing (Winters 2007a), or brief motivational
enhancement therapy (Tevyaw 2004), which focuses on building
adolescents’ readiness to change their behaviours. This technique
provides personalized feedback on substance use together with a
motivational interviewing counselling style (Miller 2002).