Community Based Interventions

Community-Based Health Interventions covers the skills necessary to change health in a community setting through the reduction of disease, disease conditions, and risks to health, as well as create a supportive environment for the maintenance of the behavior changes. The first section provides background information about why interventions in communities are important, the history of several major community interventions, ethical issues in the design and implementation of interventions and the different types of interventions. The second section covers planning and activities needed to complete an intervention, along with the theoretical basis of interventions. The third section shows how to assess the needs and strengths of a particular community, gain community support, define the goals of an intervention and get started. This section also contains information on obtaining material and financial support and on strategies for continuing the intervention beyond its initial phase. The final section examines current work and problems encountered as well as projecting future trends. Each chapter includes practice exercises or activities useful to students learning to develop interventions at the population or community level, such as public health, social work and nursing.

However, major gaps still exist in the understanding of bullying and of interventions that can prevent or mitigate the effects of bullying. Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying is the summary of a workshop convened by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council in April 2014 to identify the conceptual models and interventions that have proven effective in decreasing bullying, examine models that could increase protective factors and mitigate the negative effects of bullying, and explore the appropriate roles of different groups in preventing bullying. This report reviews research on bullying prevention and intervention efforts as well as efforts in related areas of research and practice, implemented in a range of contexts and settings, including schools, peers, families, communities, laws and public policies, and technology.^

"IEA, International Epidemiological Association, Welcome Trust."

This book articulates a clear four-phase framework for planning, creating, implementing, and evaluating multilevel community health promotion interventions that target individual, physical, and social environments. It breaks down each of the four phases into detailed yet easy-to-follow steps that review important procedures, like identifying a behaviorally based problem within a community, identifying the underlying behavioral determinants to be targeted by the intervention, selecting intervention techniques that target those determinants, and evaluating outcomes to modify the intervention as needed. Guidelines for engaging community members in the design process, building teams, developing a manual of procedures, conducting pilot studies, and other important intervention components are also reviewed. Also reviewed are instructions for applying this framework to the adaption of existing interventions to new contexts. Feature boxes highlight key information and practical takeaways for students and interventionists. Detailed case examples that highlight various health promotion efforts bring the four-phase framework to life, including a recurring example about reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in middle-school students that follows the process from beginning to end.

For decades, community-centered social services have been promoted as an admirable ideal. Yet the concept of decentralized services delivered where people live has proved to be an elusive ideal as well, with the promise of empowerment often giving way to disinterest and apathy. Community-Based Interventions examines the reasons community programs tend to founder and proposes a realistic framework for sustained success. The book's theoretical, philosophical and political foundations begin with the importance of context, as in local knowledge and community self-definition and engagement. Innovative, often startling, approaches to planning, design and implementation begin with the recognition that communities are not "targets" or "locations" to be "fixed," but social realities whose issues require concrete answers. The variety of examples described in these chapters demonstrate the power of community interventions in providing effective services, reducing inequities and giving individuals greater control over their health, their environment and in the long run, their lives. Included in the coverage: Redefining community: the social dimensions. A new epidemiology to inform community work. The role of research in designing community interventions. The conceptual flow of a community-based project. Building autonomy through leadership from below. Relating social interventions to social justice. Attuned to the current era of health and mental health reform, Community-Based Interventions represents a major step forward in its field and makes an inspiring text for social workers, clinical social workers, public health administrators and community activists.

"This companion guide to Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition speeds the diffusion of life-saving knowledge by distilling the contents of the larger volume into an easily read format. Policy makers, practitioners, academics, and other interested readers will get an overview of the messages and analysis in Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition; be alerted to the scope of major diseases; learn strategies to improve policies and choices to implement cost-effective interventions; and locate chapters of immediate interest."

At least 7 million young Americansâ€"fully one-quarter of adolescents 10 to 17 years oldâ€"may be at risk of failing to achieve productive adult lives. They use drugs, engage in unprotected sex, drop out of school, and sometimes commit crimes, effectively closing the door to their own futures. And the costs to society are enormous: school and social services are overwhelmed, and our nation faces the future with a diminished citizenry. This penetrating book argues that the problems of troubled youth cannot be separated from the settings in which those youths liveâ€"settings that have deteriorated significantly in the past two decades. A distinguished panel examines what works and what does not in the effort to support and nurture adolescents and offers models for successful programs. This volume presents an eye-opening look at what millions of the nation's youths confront every day of their lives, addressing: How the decline in economic security for young working parents affects their children's life chances. How dramatic changes in household structure and the possibilities of family and community violence threaten adolescents' development. How the decline of neighborhoods robs children of a safe environment. How adolescents' health needs go unmet in the current system. Losing Generations turns the spotlight on those institutions youths needâ€"the health care system, schools, the criminal justice, and the child welfare and foster home systemsâ€"and how they are functioning. Difficult issues are addressed with study results and insightful analyses: access of poor youths to health insurance coverage, inequities in school funding, how child welfare agencies provide for adolescents in their care, and the high percentage of young black men in the criminal justice system.