Course Descriptions
Health & Wellness Self-Management Skills Training (virtual only)
In this course, we will be expanding upon our previous work done in self-managing chronic conditions and deepening our understanding of the true meaning of wellness, defining it as a journey and not a destination.
By the end of this four-day course, participants will be able to:
- Define the eight dimensions of wellness
- Address viral suppression: how to get there and stay there
- Identify ways of getting healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that is suited to the individual
- Define what self-care means to you and how it may look different for men and women
- Discuss the impact COVID-19 has and continues to have on HIV, HCV, STIs, harm reduction, and use of PrEP
- Identify ways in which COVID-19 impacts people with untreated HIV infections
- Seek care and ask for help using good communication skills
- Use organizing and prioritization skills to ensure that healthcare is manageable on a day-to-day basis
- Discuss U=U today and the obstacles that continue to exist for clients and the community
These objectives will lead us into many rich and invaluable discussions about health and wellness. However, as we venture into this exciting new era of technology and evidence-based interventions, the outcomes for reaching optimal health remain the same: control, functionality, and a sense of wellness.
Leadership Skills Development Training - Part 1 (virtual only)
If we have learned anything from the last 20-plus years in LTI, it is the need for skilled and well-informed leaders who are able to influence others. To accomplish this, LTI offers a three-day course on how to develop and build skills of engagement, with leadership development being the end goal.
By attending this three-day virtual training, participants will be able to:
- Define leadership in general, then for themselves (what does leadership look like to you?)
- Name at least three leadership roles involved in peer work
- Identify at least five areas of healthcare where one could apply leadership skills
- List the important characteristics of effective leaders
- Explain the difference between a vision and a mission statement of leadership in peer work (visioning)
- State what it means to role model and lead by example
- Define your role as a leader in HIV, HCV, HR, and/or taking PrEP
- Plan for continuing your pursuit of leadership beyond peer work
Leadership Skills Development Training - Part 2 (virtual only)
Designed for people who completed Leadership Development Skills - Part 1.
In this two-day training program, participants will continue to develop skills in emotional intelligence. Research has shown that leaders with a high “EQ” can understand their own emotions and how they affect their performance. Good leaders must be able to influence others. Learning to control our own emotions allows us to understand and assist others in managing their emotions as well.
The areas of competency that will be addressed in this training are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
We will also introduce the concept of situational leadership. This will allow leaders to identify the ability of others to complete assigned tasks by recognizing their level of readiness to complete a task. This is a best practice and has shown to be a remarkable skill in leadership development.
By the end of the training, participants will be able to:
- Explain how emotional intelligence assists leaders in influencing others
- Apply emotional intelligence appropriately
- Explain the four styles of situational leadership – telling, selling, participating, and delegating
- Recognize your own preferred style of leadership
- Adapt your preferred leadership style to match the needs of others
This program is an essential component of the work the AIDS Institute has tasked LTI to produce. Our goal is to ensure that there are leaders, peer mentors and ambassadors in every region of New York State.
Leadership Development Skills Training: Part 1 (hybrid)
If history has taught us anything in the LTI, it is the need for skilled and well-informed peers to serve as “leaders” in our communities.
Research has shown that peers have a unique and vital role to play in advocating for programs and services. Our goal is to increase the “leadership skills” of individuals with shared-lived experience of HIV, HCV (current or cured), drug use health and/or taking PrEP for prevention. We support the premise that leaders must be able to influence others. By increasing our levels of skill in these areas and enhancing our emotional intelligence, we are preparing our community with leadership designed for now and in the future.
In this course we will offer participants the ability to:
- Define leadership, in general, then as it applies to themselves
- Name at least 3 roles of leadership essential to peer work
- List important characteristics of effective leaders or leadership
- Create a vision and mission statement and define the difference between the two
- Plan for continuing pursuit of leadership beyond peer work
Intended Audience
Any peer worker whether certified or not who just wants to learn and develop leadership skills building from the ground up. The community wants leaders who are realistic, relatable, and relevant.
Developing Partnerships with Peer Workers Using the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing involves not only particular skills, but also an underlying attitude, a particular state of mind and heart with which you engage in a helping relationship.
If you begin with an intention to persuade, fix, or correct someone, you have already lost the person-centered path.
In this two-day training, we will dive deep into the spirit of motivational interviewing: partnership acceptance, compassion and evocation (PACE). Peers will have opportunities to begin learning how to operationalize the spirit of motivational interviewing by learning the four tasks of motivational interviewing:
- Engaging – Can we walk together?
- Focusing – Where are we going?
- Evoking – Why would you go there?
- Planning – How will you get there?
Peers will also learn how motivational interviewing can be used along with the transtheoretical model of behavior change, to make certain they are using the correct skills for the stage of change exhibited by the client and not falling into traps like expert, persuasion. time, and wandering.
Motivational interviewing is not about installing motivation in people, but rather evoking it from them.
A key in motivational interviewing is helping a person discover their own person’s own motivation for the change being considered.
As a result of this training, participants will be able to:
- Define motivational interviewing as it relates to developing partnerships with clients
- Connect motivational interviewing with the stages of change
- Explain the “spirit of motivational interviewing” (PACE)
- Develop partnerships with their clients using MI
Intended audience
Peer workers who are working in the community with others seeking ways to change difficult or challenging behaviors.