September 1996 Putting Prevention into the Big Picture
Drawing on eight years of experience working with schools throughout the West, the Laboratory's drug education program gathered the secrets of prevention success between the covers of a new document. Effective Comprehensive Prevention Programs: A Planning Guide written by staff of the Western Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities shares the fruits of hundreds of workshops and the findings of dozens of reports. Taken together, these insights offer a sturdy framework upon which schools can build a solid prevention program.First and foremost, the planning guide asserts, prevention must be part of a larger reform effort. Prevention programs that are add-ons, tacked onto one corner of the curriculum or aimed at one segment of the student body, are unlikely to succeed, say authors Andrew Duncan, Stevie Stephens-Burden, and Ann Bickel. Along with programs for special populations of students, they argue, prevention programs must be folded into the mainstream of the school program. "We cannot afford the luxury of fragmented, categorical, or territorial approaches any longer, for our children are paying the price of our lack of unity," the authors write.
Schoolwide reform and prevention efforts must touch not only the whole school but the whole community, the planning guide maintains. In short, programs must be comprehensive. They must cut across disciplines and across categories of kids. They must extend into the homes, neighborhoods, businesses, agencies, churches, parks, recreational programs, and service organizations that make up the surrounding community. Skimming the surface with one-time assemblies or other piecemeal approaches won't work, the authors say. In fact, they warn, some prevention efforts can backfire, actually encouraging kids to experiment with drugs.
"Comprehensive prevention programs must address basic human needs and developmental issues," the authors note. "Not only must individuals be provided opportunities to develop those attributes and skills necessary for their individual health, but we must create environments that sustain and promote health."
Duncan and his colleagues advocate using the resiliency model for program planning. The resiliency model builds on the strengths of students and their families, rather than zeroing in on their problems. The guide includes a paper on resiliency by Bonnie Benard and one on community team building by Carol Burgoa and Vicki Ertle.
The authors provide a list of the prevention practices that research and experience have shown to work-and of those that have been found ineffective. For example:
- An information-only approach is of limited effectiveness because knowledge, attitude, and behavior change often are not related
- Scare tactics such as pictures of car wrecks or black lungs are not effective and can even be counterproductive
- There is no evidence that programs implemented by police officers are any more effective than similar programs implemented by teachers or other adults
- Little or no evidence exists to support the use of self-esteem building programs in prevention
- Information disseminated credibly about the dangers of alcohol and other drug use, as a component of a more comprehensive approach, may play a crucial role, especially in establishing a consensus against use; the type of information, who delivers it, and the manner in which it is delivered are critical to effectiveness of information dissemination
- School-based prevention materials should be ethnically and culturally appropriate; appeal to youths' interests; be appropriate for students' language and readability levels; and address different models of learning
The Laboratory's drug education services have been folded into the new federally funded comprehensive technical assistance center, the Northwest Regional Assistance Center. Copies of Effective Comprehensive Prevention Programs: A Planning Guide are free to readers in the Northwest region. To order, call Tess Oliver at (503) 275-9481 or (800) 547-6339, ext. 481. The document also can be accessed through the Internet using Adobe's free, downloadable Acrobat reader software at the Northwest Regional Assistance Center's Online Library.
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