Policy & Prevention at the Local Level

Description: Traditional prevention has historically focused on prevention professionals teaching individuals how to make healthy decisions to avoid early initiation of substance use and challenges with mental wellness. However, healthy individuals can only stay healthy for so long if they do not reside within healthy communities. Thus, preventionists must also promote environmental changes that enhance the health and wellness of entire communities. One such strategy that has been widely researched and shown to create broad-sweeping and long-lasting community-level change is the creation or modification of public policies, which can – and should – occur at the local (community) level. This session will provide an overview of policy efforts as an important tool in the prevention professional’s toolbox. Participants will leave this session with a thorough understanding of what public policy is and why it plays such an integral role in prevention. Most importantly, though, participants will learn both how to choose policy strategies as well as how to conduct policies strategies at the local and level.

CEUS: Prevention, CHES
Hours: 1.5
Domains: P5: Public Policy & Environmental Change

Learning Objectives:

1. Define policy efforts in the context of prevention strategies.
2. Articulate why conducting policy efforts is such a powerful prevention tool for creating community-level change.
3. Determine how to choose policy strategies at the local level that are uniquely tailored to the identified community’s needs.
4. Conduct policy strategies at the local level that will have the greatest preventative impact on the chosen community.

Presenter: Andrea Hoff, MPA, GPC, OCPC, ICPS