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How does Prevention Work?

• Information Dissemination: Presentations in workplaces, community groups, or after-school programs, as well as the distribution of informational materials at schools, health fairs, and community events. Access to accurate information assists individuals, families, and communities to make healthy choices.
• Education: Helping youth learn refusal skills, assertiveness techniques, and improved decision-making through the facilitation of educational curricula and small groups in schools. Youth with the information, skills, and practice of avoiding high-risk behaviors find it easier to implement in real-life situations.
• Environmental/Social Policy: Analysis of, and advocacy for, changes in social norms, policies, and laws that encourage healthy, positive, and low-risk behaviors. When expectations for behavior regarding alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are clearly set by norms, policies, and laws, it removes some of the pressure from individuals to constantly choose whether or not to use.
• Alternatives: The promotion of drug-free places and activities as alternatives to high-risk behaviors for youth. It is important for youth to have choices regarding how and where to spend their free time.
• Community-Based Process: Collaboration with community groups and coalitions to focus on prevention efforts. Consistent positive messages need repetition in order to counteract the powerful advertising messages youth see. When community efforts and messages about alcohol and drug use echo the expectations of parents, schools, and laws or policies, the consistent positive messages gain power.
• Problem Identification and Referral: To provide a complete spectrum of prevention services, it is necessary to identify clients and/or issues that need more attention or assistance and then to make appropriate referrals to other community resources.