Modern prevention specialists need grounding in the topics they face every day, as well as in evidence-based approaches to address their most pressing prevention needs.
Our trainings and consultation help practitioners gain the skills and knowledge they need to effect community change. We offer expertise in a variety of prevention topics, areas of practice, and related skills. Learn more about our expertise below.
Prevention Topics
- Opioids
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More than 64,000 Americans die each year from opioid overdose. Working as partners, EDC helps communities develop the prevention knowledge, skills, and systems needed to prevent opioid misuse, overdose, and overdose-related deaths.
We can help you:
- Understand the complexity of the opioid crisis and how to prepare stakeholders to work together to address it
- Reach those populations at greatest risk
- Engage in a deliberate strategic planning process that links programming to critical outcomes
- Identify and implement strategies to prevent opioid overdose and related death, as well as those that improve health outcomes among individuals who have experienced a nonfatal overdose
- Tailor prevention information and messaging to meet the needs, and address the fears, of different audiences
- Shape attitudes and reduce prejudice toward people who struggle with addiction
- Marijuana
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Half of the U.S. population now lives in states where recreational marijuana use is allowed. EDC supports communities struggling to correct misperceptions about the safety of underage use, stay abreast of new research on effective prevention programs and practices, and ensure that licensed dispensaries operate safely.
We can help you:
- Apply critical lessons learned from the prevention of underage and binge drinking
- Understand the effects of marijuana use on young adults Mobilize communities to address marijuana misuse in a coordinated way
- Understand factors associated with youth marijuana use, including perception of harm Access current research on evidence-based prevention programs and practices
- Develop youth marijuana prevention initiatives that are well-matched to local needs
- Train marijuana retailers to engage in safe selling practices
- Gambling
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Approximately 6 million U.S. adults engage in problem gambling each year. We understand that problem gambling is not a stand-alone issue; it disproportionately affects those with substance use or mental health disorders and those most affected by income, housing, and educational disparities.
- Suicide Prevention
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Suicide is a public health issue that impacts individuals, families, communities, and our society. Community-Led Suicide Prevention helps communities and the states that work with them come together to create and reach their suicide prevention goals. EDC provides step-by-step information, how-to tools, interactive training, and tailored coaching to support communities in achieving comprehensive suicide prevention.
Areas of Practice
- Workforce Development
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Developing and maintaining a well-trained prevention workforce equipped to reduce the impact of substance misuse and related behavioral health problems can be challenging. With more than 20 years of experience operating national training and technical assistance centers, EDC knows firsthand what it takes to build a professional, well-prepared workforce that reflects the populations it serves.
We can help you:
- Assess current workforce needs
- Prepare practitioners to engage in a comprehensive, data-driven strategic planning process
- Develop training programs that reflect current research
- Define career pathways for practitioners seeking prevention certification
- Deliver established workforce development trainings, such as the Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST) and Ethics in Prevention
- Recruit new practitioners to the field
- Design and develop sustainable training and technical assistance delivery
- Strategic Planning
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At EDC, we understand that effective prevention is deliberate and that strategic planning is the foundation for linking prevention programming to critical prevention outcomes.
We can help you:
- Implement effective planning models, such as SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework
- Using epidemiological data, assess and prioritize the substance-related prevention needs of populations
- Prepare and mobilize communities to engage in prevention efforts
- Develop the prevention systems needed to support prevention efforts over time
- Select, implement, and evaluate evidence-based prevention approaches that address current priorities
- Support the collaboration and alignment of prevention services with related behavioral health efforts
- Monitoring & Evaluation
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Monitoring and evaluation allows us to demonstrate that our prevention efforts are making a difference—generating the data need to describe what we’ve achieved and (equally important) how we got there. In this changing prevention landscape, it also helps us develop new programs and practices to meet emerging needs.
We can help you:
- Build support for evaluation efforts
- Use evaluation approaches to describe prevention activities, make continuous improvements, and document impact
- Identify specific program outcomes and the best methods for measuring them
- Develop logic model to guide evaluation efforts
- Present evaluation data to stakeholders
- Increase evidence of effectiveness for innovative programs
- Health Communications
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Clear communication is at the center of all prevention efforts. It enables practitioners to build support among key stakeholders, create prevention champions, translate research findings into practical tools, shape prevention messaging, and showcase results. For more than 50 years, EDC has worked closely with communities to develop health communications programs, campaigns, and tools that have transformed lives.
We can help you:
- Create and implement a communications strategy
- Shape prevention messages that are positive, productive, and inclusive
- Develop and implement successful media campaigns
- Harness the power of social media to promote prevention efforts
- Work effectively with the press
- Develop stories that showcase your prevention successes
- Evaluate your communications efforts
- Prevention Across the Continuum
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To have an impact, prevention professionals across the continuum of care—substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery—must work together to address substance-related problems in a coordinated way. Yet differences in training, perspective, and terminology can create artificial barriers to effective collaboration. EDC understands what it takes to integrate prevention into recovery and treatment efforts.
We can help you:
- Increase workforce knowledge of opioid overdose prevention
- Create a common language for addressing common goals
- Strengthen networking and communication across disciplines
- Engage in joint planning and problem-solving Identify and overcome systemic barriers to collaboration
Resources
Access a range of print and online resources developed by EDC to prevent substance misuse and related behavioral health problems and made freely available to the prevention workforce. Filter by ype of resource, including tools, videos, materials, and more, as well as prevention topic and area of practice.
Within each area of practice, we provide services and resources that take into account related topics, including evidence-based practices, logic models, epidemiology and data collection, and collaborations and partnerships. Likewise, within each topic area, we provide resources that speak to risk and protective factors, adverse childhood experiences, health disparities, suicide risk and behaviors, and effects of COVID-19.