Theory and Practice of Prevention in the Community - an Overview of International Experience with the Implementation of Communitybased Prevention Strategies
Abstract
Community prevention involves a number of processes that aim to enrich the lives of community members and promote a balance between a community's resources and its needs. When working within the community, the community becomes the client, with its specific capacities, resources, needs, and characteristics.
Prevention work in the community includes needs analysis based on epidemiological data, capacity building, the development of strategic plans, the implementation of policies, strategies, and prevention programmes, and evaluation. The paper provides an overview of approaches to prevention in the community, places the Development and Implementation of a Pilot Community-based Prevention Programme, with Emphasis on the Risk Behaviour of Children and Youth project in the context of community-based preventive work, and presents tools to support the principle of a decentralised approach to prevention.