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Environmental Prevention

Introduction

The Ohio Center for Coalition Excellence is committed to an environmental approach to prevention.

Environmental prevention is based in the public health model, which stems from the premise that to affect health-related behaviors, prevention efforts must address the host, agent, and environment.  In preventing alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse, the host is the individual; the agent is alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; and the environment is the given community.

Many prevention approaches have had limited success because they only address one (the host) of those three entities.  The agent and the environment are unaffected, creating a dynamic in which individuals are expected to make healthy prevention choices in an environment that may support and encourage alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse.

Environmental prevention strategies address the agent and environment, as well as the individual, providing a comprehensive approach to prevention.

A breakdown of an individual focused approach versus an environment focused approach:

Science-based, individually focused prevention can be effective in achieving certain outcomes.  But ATOD-related behavior does not occur in isolation.  Rather it is shaped by our physical and social settings.  To be effective, communities need to take shared responsibility for creating conditions that support healthy ATOD use choices and that discourage unhealthy choices.

Advantages of environmental strategies:

• Impact the entire community, across the lifespan
• Facilitate long term impacts
• Increase community awareness of alcohol, tobacco and other drug issues and opportunities to act
• Instill a sense of empowerment in communities
• Create new collaborations between community members, government and various systems
• Build alliances between community members and key partners who serve the community
• Increase the impact of individually focused prevention strategies
• Increase the impact of treatment and support recovery

Environmental prevention is backed by evidence: Research studies and program evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of environmental strategies in combating alcohol and other drug related problems. A sample of these findings can be found from the following sources:

• Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility, National Academy of Sciences, 2003
• A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 2002
• Community Trials Intervention to Reduce High-risk Drinking, SAMHSA Model Program
• Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol, SAMHSA Model Program

Because of the strong research support for environmental prevention strategies, we are seeing increased focus on these strategies from both the federal and state level.

The Ohio Policy Panel to Reduce Childhood/Underage Drinking recently published Empowering Our Future: Ohio’s Recommendations to Prevent Childhood/Underage Drinking.  Each of the eight recommendations and strategies for the state of Ohio relate to environmental strategies.

Environmental prevention strategies and community coalitions

Any prevention provider or community advocate can engage in environmental prevention strategies.  And many coalitions come together to support individually-focused prevention efforts. In short, the two do not have to come hand-in-hand.

However, environmental prevention strategies are usually more successful when individuals have come together from across many community sectors to implement the strategies.  And coalitions maximize their results when they work to affect the community at the community level, rather than simply supporting education and skill development of the many individuals in the community.

The Ohio Center for Coalition Excellence utilizes the CAMP approach to environmental prevention, which groups the key strategies into the following four categories to impact:

C – Community Norms

A – Access and Availability

M – Media Messages

P – Policy and Enforcement

These strategies are delineated in this section, and examples of the strategies are listed, as well as key resources for further information.

In addition to engaging in environmental prevention strategies, community coalitions often engage in “turn-key” or “quick win” initiatives and projects – short-term efforts to garner community support, raise awareness, and have a “success” for the coalition in a short time frame.  For a list of options, go to turnkey projects.

Advocacy is an important tool utilized by community coalitions to address the four strategies. Learn more about advocacy in Policy and Enforcement.

IIndividual communities should prioritize their strategies and projects in accordance with the needs of their community, ideally identified through a needs assessment process. Those embarking on an initiative to utilize strategies for environmental prevention must also choose activities within the strategies to best accomplish the goals of the community coalition.

A list of other coalitions in your area and throughout Ohio are available through the Ohio Center for Coaltion Excellence's Networking Directory.

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