Prevention cultures
About
This track is co-produced by the European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR).
Despite significant progress in prevention science over the past 30 years in developing evidence-based interventions and policies, there has not been equal success in attracting support from policymakers and gaining acceptance by communities. There is a lack of preventive thinking that would increase such support or acceptance. And there is a tendency to set reactive thinking in the first place, more in low- than high-income countries and communities. This track focuses on the importance of having prevention cultures underpinning policies, interventions and practice. The keynote session contains the construct, article review and definition of prevention cultures.
The Corona pandemic was not at all an era of low-profile or moderate research activity in the prevention domain: the worldwide discourse on how to understand research findings in order to prevent contamination and death was omnipresent. Decision makers and front-line professionals experienced in very short time that directly enforcing behaviour change can alter beliefs and norms that eventually might have a generational effect. Similar legitimation of laws and policies had been observed related to tobacco regulation. Such findings are opening new pathways for environmental prevention, discussed in one of the Prevention Track’s major sessions.
A third major session in this track focusses on intersectoral action in prevention: in order to build overarching prevention cultures we must look over the wall of substance use and cross into the domains of violence, crime, mental health problems, obesity and physical inactivity. Understanding the often same influence factors of these problem behaviours and intervening to change them sets the foundation for harmonising prevention cultures across different domains. This view sets also the beacons for professionalisation of the workforce: by training both implementers and policymakers with relevant adapted curricula in face-to-face and online modes.
The Prevention Cultures Track offers major sessions, trainings (like a EUPC European Prevention Curriculum training), workshops and campfire sessions.