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The importance of shared language in rural behavioral health interventions: An exploratory linguistic analysis.
Author(s) -
Michele Staton,
Jennifer Cramer,
Robert Walker,
Claire SnellRood,
Athena Kheibari
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
rural mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2163-8969
pISSN - 1935-942X
DOI - 10.1037/rmh0000117
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , psychology , linguistics , exploratory analysis , linguistic analysis , occupational safety and health , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , injury prevention , medicine , medical emergency , computer science , psychiatry , philosophy , data science , pathology
A focus on the use of shared language to enhance congruence in interventionist-client dialogue is missing from traditional research on evidence-based practices and rural behavioral health. This study incorporates qualitative interactional sociolinguistics, which includes discourse analysis (typically written or audio recordings of face-to-face encounters with 11 clients and a study interventionist), to describe those speech patterns in a broad sense (dialect), as well as more specific use of communicative strategies to increase parity in the interaction between a rural interventionist delivering an evidence-based practice in the context of a research study with rural women opioid users in a non-therapeutic context. Study findings indicated that in the context of delivering the intervention, use of a shared language, language pattern congruence, and communication styles can greatly augment the intent of the approach with vulnerable populations. In addition, other communicative strategies connected with traditional Appalachian values - such as religion, home, and family - were also important. This study makes an important contribution to behavioral health research and practice by understanding critical factors that may influence evidence-based practice delivery, particularly in real-world settings with vulnerable populations. These findings have important implications for the utilization of creative approaches to understand critical components of the clinical interaction as indicators of fidelity.