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Prevention (Lisa Quast) |
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Prevention
is described as one of many underlying values of community psychology,
however there is much disagreement about the usage of the public health
classification system of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
Primary prevention is the reduction in
the incidence of disorders, or the promotion of well being and
competencies to protect against dysfunction. Preventative efforts are
aimed at everyone in the population, however, the view of community
psychologists is that an ecological perspective should be taken to include
the environment and person interaction. According
to the same concept of public health, secondary prevention is an attempt
to identify those in the early onset of a disorder, and provide treatment.
However, once an individual meets the criteria for the disorder, it can no
longer be prevented, thus, the concept of prevention does not fit.
Tertiary prevention aims to reduce residual effects of an established
disorder and assist individuals to partake in some aspect of community
life, however, this again is not truly prevention, but has been described
as a maintenance period. Such
controversy has arisen with regard to the definitions of the categories,
as well as the existence of the levels themselves, and even that if
prevention is viewed in terms of prediction, how can we intervene at one
level, knowing that we do not really know the consequences - we are
predicting the future. There is still a large question mark attached to
many aspects of this value, however there is no denying its importance. |