What is Prevention?
MAPPA believes that it is important for our legislative leaders to learn more
about the field of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention. The following
bulleted points present a basic overview of the current state of prevention:

  • Prevention is the creation of conditions, opportunities and experiences
    that encourage and develop healthy people.  It aims to forestall
    undesirable behavior or render it impossible rather than taking corrective
    action later.   Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) prevention works
    to create conditions that prevent, reduce, and delay the use of alcohol,
    tobacco, and other drugs by  youth.  Based on more than twenty years of
    research, a science of ATOD prevention has now emerged. Science-based
    prevention is grounded in a clear theoretical foundation that has been
    carefully implemented and evaluated.

  • Effective prevention strategies focus on both the individual and the
    environment.  Individually oriented strategies seek to socialize, guide, or
    instruct children in ways that increase their resistance to health risks.   
    Environmental strategies strive to support or thwart the norms,
    availability, and regulations concerning ATOD use in the shared
    environment.

  • Prevention professionals work in every county in Maryland. Each county
    has a prevention program based in the county health department,
    executive's office, or a non-profit organization. Most often, prevention
    coordinators are the lead workers in county prevention programs. Youth,
    parents, law enforcement, the schools, other agencies, the faith
    community, and businesses are essential partners with prevention
    professionals in implementing comprehensive strategies to prevent,
    reduce, and delay use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Prevention
    professionals work to engage the community in identifying the problems of
    youth substance abuse and to provide them with the skills, resources and
    assistance necessary for them to address the problems successfully.

  • Effective prevention programs are cost-effective. “For every dollar spent
    on drug use prevention, communities can save 4 to 5 dollars in costs for
    drug abuse treatment and counseling.” (Preventing Drug Use Among
    Children and Adolescents, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1999).
MAPPA - Maryland Association of Prevention
Professionals and Advocates
P. O. Box 609
Linkwood, Maryland
21835-0609
marylandprevention@yahoo.com
Send comments, requests or concerns about this website to admin@mappamd.org
Material on this website is in the public domain. We encourage you to download, print and use the documents in your
prevention work. To open some the of documents, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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