Prevention’s Importance in the Opioid Crisis
July 23, 2019
SAFE GC Coalition: Prevention’s Importance in the Opioid Crisis
Keeping people who do not have an opioid use disorder from becoming addicted is equally important as treating individuals who do.
By SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment), Nonprofit (reposted from Glen Cove, NY Patch)
…Prevention programs can take many forms, but all in one way or another address these risk factors and/or bolster factors like self-control, peer relationships, or other age appropriate skills. These forms of resilience may make all the difference in the young person’s life when faced with the opportunities and temptations to begin smoking, drinking, or using drugs when they are adolescents, despite whatever adversity they may have experienced when younger.
Because risk factors for drug use are common to other behavioral problems, most prevention interventions do not focus solely on preventing drug use or on preventing a single type of drug use. A wide range of problems can be addressed or averted by addressing core risk or protective factors.
An important research priority is finding out how to widen the use and implementation of effective evidence-supported prevention programs. The menu of such interventions is diverse, but few of the options are widely used. Part of the problem is that high quality intervention programs are costly, and communities may be reluctant to invest the needed resources when the payoff may be years or more in the future.