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Proven Health Programs For Schools And Communities

Healthy People is a government sponsored program to provide science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For over thirty years Healthy People has established benchmarks to measure the impact of prevention efforts and to guide individuals toward making informed health decisions. One of the objectives of Healthy People 2020 is to increase the number of elementary, middle, and high schools that provide comprehensive health education in the areas of injury, violence, suicide, tobacco, alcohol and other drug use, unintended pregnancy, HIV/Aids, unhealthy diet, and inadequate physical activity.  The premise is that these problems can be partially addressed by providing health education. A recent review article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine identified evidence-based, peer reviewed programs, strategies, and resources to meet these objectives and recommended evidence based implementation strategies to help achieve these goals. National health education standards have been developed to guide prevention programs.

The article states that alcohol and drug use are associated with many serious problems, including violence, injury, and HIV infection. It cites the 2007 Youth Risk Survey which found that 45% of high school students reported drinking alcohol in the previous 30 days and that those 12-20 years old drank 11% of all the alcohol consumed in the U.S. The report identifies 5 evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs all aimed at reduction of alcohol and drug use by school aged young people: Protecting you/ Protecting Me, Life Skills Training, CASATART, Class Action/Project Northland, and Project Alert.

 Online resources for identifying such evidence-based prevention resources are: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) nrepp.sanshsa.gov/, Blue Prints for Violence Prevention www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/, The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/mpg/, The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) www.casel.org/programs/selecting.php, and CDC Division Of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/index.htm.  The authors caution that “without following the developer’s guidelines and ensuring fidelity of the program an evidence-based program will not produce the intended results”.

 (Inman, D D,  Bakergem, K M,  LaRosa, A C,  Garr, D R: Evidence-based health promotion programs for schools and communities. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2011, 40:207-219.)

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