Community based prevention programs: a selective North American perspective

Abstract

This contribution presents a brief and selective review of 'family-oriented prevention' programs, including 'family support' and 'intensive family preservation', and examines four cross cutting issues which affect these and related prevention programs. These include: (1) Defining outcome criteria; (2) Specifying intervention components; (3) Design of training and technology transfer and (4) Determining 'ecological validity'. The paper concludes by enumerating ten 'building blocks'for effective prevention programs.