BCSM - - Brief Action Planning

Support for Health Professionals

Brief Action Planning (BAP) is a highly structured, patient-centred stepped-care self-management support technique. Composed of a series of 3 questions and 5 skills, BAP can be used to facilitate goal setting and action planning to build self-efficacy in chronic illness management and disease prevention. BAP is grounded in the principles and practice of motivational interviewing and the psychology of behavior change. Within behavior change, we draw primarily on self-efficacy and action planning theory and research. The overall goal of BAP is to assist an individual to create an action plan for a self-management behavior that they feel confident that they can achieve.

BAP is currently being used in diverse care settings including primary care, home health care, rehabilitation, mental health and public health to assist and empower patients to self-manage ongoing health conditions including diabetes, depression, spinal cord injury, arthritis, and hypertension. BAP is also being used to assist patients to develop action plans for disease prevention.

At this time, BAP has been incorporated into teaching curriculums at multiple medical schools, presented at major national health care/academic conferences and is being increasingly integrated into health delivery systems across the United States and Canada to support patient self-management.[1]

To learn more about Brief Action Planning, available trainings and accreditation, please visit us at The Center for Collaboration, Motivation and Innovation. www.centrecmi.ca.

[1] Damara Gutnick, MD, Kathy Reims, MD, Connie Davis, MN, ARNP, Heather Gainforth, PhD, Melanie Jay, MD, MS, and Steven Cole, MD. Brief Action Planning to Facilitate Behavior Change and Support Patient Self-Management. JCOM Vol. 21, No. 1 January 2014. www.jcomjournal.com