Science-Based Prevention through Communities That Care: A Model of Social Work Practice for Public Health

Abstract

This article describes a public health orientation to drug and alcohol abuse prevention; reviews the state of the science underlying a risk and protective factor approach to alcohol and drug abuse prevention; describes Communities That Care, a community practice model that makes use of this evidence; and considers how this model reflects four important principles of social work practice. The intent of this article is to provide guidance to social workers who support the National Association of Social Work's intention to make prevention practice central to the provision of alcohol and drug abuse services by social workers.

Keywords:

• Community practice
• social work and public health
• Communities That Care
• science-based prevention
• evidence-based practice
• protective factors

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Corrigendum

Notes

This work was supported by a research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA015183-01A1), with cofunding from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of J. David Hawkins, Principal Investigator, and the communities participating in the Community Youth Development Study.