Evaluating prevention is difficult, in particular measuring something that has not yet happened, and unpicking which intervention made the difference in the long term.’ (Warren, 2016)

Using relevant national and international literature, critically discuss the theories that influence approaches to drug prevention and education and the challenges in evidencing the impact of these approaches.

While sustained, high-quality implementation by communities is essential to achieving greater public health impact from the available tested and effective preventive interventions (Elliott and Mihalic, 2004; Glasgow, Klesges, et al., 2004; Spoth and Greenberg, 2005), implementation of existing programs alone is unlikely to be sufficient. Implementation must also include development and evaluation of research-based adaptations of programs to new cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic groups; evaluation of approaches that have broad community endorsement; and implementation of policies and principles that support healthy development.