Stages Of Change Model Essay

The stages-of-change model of health behavior provides six stages that are useful when it comes to making changes for yourself or helping to motivate others. “The stages-of-change model has been successfully applied to numerous behavioral health risks and has helped people with multiple risk factors make progress in changing several at the same time” (Knickman & Kovner, 2015, p. 128). The stages-of-change model is helpful model when it comes to treatment of health behavior because it does not follow a universal approach for every individual. Researchers came to realize that changing your health behavior is a multistage process and each stage requires different treatment or motivation, which led to this model to be developed. The six stages …show more content…
Preparation is when small steps in the plans to change are taken. The action stage is when active attempts to change really begin to happen such and last for at least six months, such as drinking less or eating healthier. Maintenance is once you maintain change for over six months. The last stage is the relapse stage, this is when the individual returns back to any of the five earlier stages and then begins to go through the stages again. According to Knickman and Kovner (2015), “one of the greatest effects of this model was to propel a dramatic shift away from one-size-fits- all approaches to individualized, stage-tailored strategies that could be applied effectively to entire populations” (p. 128). This is a great model when it comes to helping other individuals in their process of changing their health behaviors. The stages-of-change model tries to convey the message that people trying to change need motivation at all stages not just when they are actually making the change, they need motivation from the beginning of the process and all the way through because it is very each to get stuck in the precontemplation and contemplation