Prevention Needs to Do More Than Prevent

Prevention Needs to Do More Than Prevent

Substance use prevention, as well as other youth risk behavior programs, need to do more than simply prevent.  They need to promote!

Helping youth avoid risk behaviors is just one side of the prevention coin. 

The other side is motivating young people to engage in protective healthy lifestyle behaviors that make participating in risky habits less likely, but also promote greater mental and physical wellbeing, success in school and sports, and happiness.

In other words, we need more integrated, multi-health behavior prevention interventions and campaigns.

Prevention that targets substance use/misuse, but also other critical interrelated health risk factors, including physical inactivity, skipping breakfast and poor nutrition, lack of sleep, and uncontrolled stress is more cost-effective than single risk behavior prevention.

In addition, prevention that promotes healthy habits is, in our experience, more interesting and desirable to youth, parents, providers, and funders than risk-only prevention programs. 

Integrated prevention is positive youth development-oriented, and likely to result in broader favorable outcomes for youth.

And integrated, multi-health behavior prevention programs and campaigns can be used as universal prevention, as well as selective and indicated prevention for high-risk youth because all of today’s youth are in desperate need of whole-health promotion.

Prevention Plus Wellness programs for youth, adults, and parents, and our media campaigns, are multi-health behavior interventions that integrate the prevention of substance use/misuse (alcohol, marijuana, e-cigarettes, opioids) with the promotion of regular physical activity and sports participation, eating breakfast and other healthy foods, sleep, and relaxation to enhance youth wellness.

The unique Behavior-Image Model (BIM) is the theoretical roadmap used to create PPW’s integrated prevention programs using messaging highlighting desired positive images of youth engaged in healthy behaviors in the future and describing how substance use/misuse harms achieving healthy behavior goals.

PPW programs use an evidence-based practices screening and brief intervention format of: 1) screening youth health behaviors to increase awareness of current substance use and healthy habits, 2) presenting messages and images highlighting positive benefits from engaging in healthy habits and how substance use interferes with healthy habit formation, and 3) setting goals to both avoid substance use and increase healthy behaviors to enhance self-regulation skills and self-efficacy.

Learn more about the Behavior-Image Model and PPW Logic Model: https://preventionpluswellness.com/pages/ppw-logic-model

Find out about PPW’s integrated, multi-health behavior prevention programs: https://preventionpluswellness.com
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