Primary Prevention

Primary or universal prevention is about preventing problems before they occur. It means taking action to decrease the chances that a particular problem will affect a person,group, or an entire community. Prevention works by identifying and reducing risk factors and by identifying and promoting protective factors in individuals, families, and communities.

Prevention is also important in the workplace. It means taking action to decrease the likelihood that a particular problem will affect an employee, a group or the entire organization. It is about promoting the health of the organization and the individuals working there. Prevention means attending to workplace conditions such as a physically and emotionally safe working environment, open communication without fear of retribution, adequate supports & benefits, a manageable workload, and celebrating diversity of all kinds.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Prevention is cost-effective. Read more about the return on investment (ROI) from investing in prevention.

 

Resources Related to Prevention

On-Site Papers

No More Rock-Scrubbing  (pdf file available for viewing on this site)

(Albee, 1998): Should we sit around and scrub oil off rocks after the oil spill or should we demand that safer double-hull tankers be required by international law? Treatment or prevention?

Links

Jack's Troubled Career

The costs to society of a young person in trouble By H. Philip Hepworth : Problems start early for many future offenders, especially those who will become chronic and persistent offenders. Patterns of troublesome behaviour are often apparent by the age of three. The costs to society start early as well, and increase as the years go by.

The Prevention Institute

The Prevention Institute is a non-profit national center dedicated to improving community health and well-being by building momentum for effective primary prevention. Primary prevention means taking action to build resilience and to prevent problems before they occur. The Institute's work is characterized by a strong commitment to community participation and promotion of equitable health outcomes among all social and economic groups. Since its founding in 1997, the organization has focused on injury and violence prevention, traffic safety, health disparities, nutrition and physical activity, and youth development.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Association (SAMHSA - US Department of Health and Human Services)

"The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has established a clear vision for its work --a life in the community for everyone. To realize this vision, the Agency has sharply focused its mission on building resilience and facilitating recovery for people with or at risk for mental or substance use disorders."

Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies

"Our mission is to provide training, technical assistance, evaluation, research, and other services to support prevention, treatment and recovery in the alcohol and other drugs field."

Pacific Institute forf Research and Evaluation (PIRE)

"PIRE is dedicated to merging scientific knowledge and proven practice to create solutions that improve the health, safety, and well-being of individuals, communities, nations and the world. The Institute has a significant national presence in the area of prevention, with funded research projects at its ten research centers located around the country."

Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids 

Provides comprehensive information and reports on big tobacco, the global tobacco epidemic, state and federal laws and a forum for youth action. Get ideas and check out what other youth groups across the nation are doing to combat big tobacco.

The Marin Institute 

With a focus on environmental prevention of alcohol problems, The Marin Institute promotes effective alcohol policy, conducts media advocacy and supports grassroots campaigns.

Prevention Research Center 

This Berkeley-based organization studies environmental approaches to preventing alcohol and drug-related problems.

Improving the Health of Canadians: Exploring Positive Mental Health 

Report of Canadian Institute of Mental Health (2009). "Mental health is more than the absence of mental illness. It is a component of overall health and is shaped by individual, physical environment, social, cultural and socio-economic characteristics. Increasingly, mental health is moving to the forefront of discussions and action on overall health and well-being. However, much of the work in this area to date has not focused on supporting the development of positive mental health; instead, it has had a primary focus on mental illness, specifically service-, access- and stigma-related issues. This was seen as a gap by the experts with whom CPHI consulted regarding the focus of this report."

A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention (pdf)

"In researching the costs and benefits, the NIEER researchers isolated the costs of the special intervention - that is, the cost of the special services offered to the children in the high-quality programs. They concluded that the average annual cost of the Abecedarian Program is about $13,000 per child (2002 dollars). That's about twice the cost of the average Head Start program. Yet even at that high cost, the researchers found that the benefits outweighed the costs by a factor of four dollars for every dollar spent.

"They also noted that the pay-off would probably be much greater in other communities, especially high-crime and low-income neighborhoods. That's because the Abecedarian Project was conducted in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a middle-class community that is more supportive than most of early education. Thus, the NIEER researchers concluded their analysis may actually underestimate the benefits of high-quality early education programs for disadvantaged communities. In such neighborhoods, the impact may be much larger. Indeed, other studies, such as the Perry Preschool Project, have estimated a return of up to seven dollars for every taxpayer dollar spent on early education, with most of the return from decreased crime costs."

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities (free online research report)

Mental health and substance use disorders among children, youth, and young adults are major threats to the health and well-being of younger populations which often carryover into adulthood. The costs of treatment for mental health and addictive disorders, which create an enormous burden on the affected individuals, their families, and society, have stimulated increasing interest in prevention practices that can impede the onset or reduce the severity of the disorders. Prevention practices have emerged in a variety of settings, including programs for selected at-risk populations (such as children and youth in the child welfare system), school-based interventions, interventions in primary care settings, and community services designed to address a broad array of mental health needs and populations.

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People updates a 1994 Institute of Medicine book, Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders, focusing special attention on the research base and program experience with younger populations that have emerged since that time. Researchers, such as those involved in prevention science, mental health, education, substance abuse, juvenile justice, health, child and youth development, as well as policy makers involved in state and local mental health, substance abuse, welfare, education, and justice will depend on this updated information on the status of research and suggested directions for the field of mental health and prevention of disorders.

Nurturing Environments (Blog by Anthony Biglan)

I created this blog to promote the spread of nurturing environments. Societies that increase the prevalence of nurturing family, school, workplace, and community environments will improve the wellbeing of their members in virtually every respect. They will reduce child abuse, marital conflict, crime, substance abuse, depression, prejudice, and interpersonal conflict. They will increase cooperation, productivity, healthy child development, and fun.....

Context: The rise in obesity in the United States may slow or even reverse the long-term trend of increasing life expectancy. Like many risk factors for disease, obesity results from behavior and shows a social gradient. Especially among women, obesity is more common among lower-income individuals, those with less education, and some ethnic/racial minorities.

Conclusions: A social justice perspective facilitates a synthesis of both models. This article proposes the concept of "behavioral justice" to convey the principle that individuals are responsible for engaging in health-promoting behaviors but should be held accountable onlywhen they have adequate resources to do so. This perspectivemaintains both individuals' control and accountability for behaviors and society's responsibility to provide health-promoting environments.