Prevention as a Field
Prevention as a Field
Written by: Young Prevention Professional Ryley Jones BS, OCPS, CHES
Program Coordinator at PreventionFIRST!
Stumbling My Way Into Prevention
In the Prevention field we often joke that no one wakes up one day and says “I want to be a Prevention Specialist” we often find ourselves or our co-workers somehow stumbling our way into the field.
I graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Promotion & Education with a concentration in Public & Community Health. Before graduating I wasn’t sure what I would do with my degree, but I always had a passion for helping people and was very interested in the substance misuse/ mental health realm of things. My senior year of college I decided to intern at a Non-profit agency in Cincinnati called PreventionFIRST, and now I have been working there for 2 years! PreventionFIRST is where I learned that Prevention is a field within itself.
What is Prevention?
Prevention is the practice of keeping something from occurring. It refers to any strategies used to preclude the onset of behavioral health disorders. Prevention may look like any action taken to keep people healthy and well, and prevent or avoid risk of poor health, illness, injury and early death. Prevention is a comprehensive approach used to delay the onset of behavioral health disorders, it is an evidence-based science, backed up by theories, models, approaches, and models.
Some of these theories & frameworks include:
- Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF)
- The Institute of Medicine’s Continuum of Care Model
- Risk & Protective Factors
- The Developmental Assets Approach
- Community Readiness Model
Prevention Services Should:
1) Be intentionally designed to reduce risk and/or promote health before the onset of a disorder
2) Be population-focused and targeted to specific levels of risk
3) Be reserved for interventions designed to reduce the occurrence of new cases of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders, and not be used for clinical assessment, treatment, relapse and recovery support services, or medications of any type.
Prevention Strategies:
The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) is one of the four centers under the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). CSAP has 6 strategies that can be used to promote prevention science and gives prevention professionals concrete guidelines.
The 6 CSAP Strategies include:
- Information Dissemination
- Education
- Alternative Activities
- Problem ID & Referral
- Community Based Process
- Environmental Changes
Sources:
https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-4758.01
https://www.ca-cpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CSAP-6-Prevention-Strategies.pdf
