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This study aims to examine whether a community-based suicide prevention project could increase willingness to seek professional help for suicidal ideation among young people.

Online surveys were administered at baseline (n = 224) and six months post-test (n = 217), consisting of the Risk Behavior Diagnosis scale; self-report questions on suicidality; willingness to engage with suicide prevention resources; and willingness to communicate with peers, family members, teachers or counselors about suicide.

A comparison of means within groups from pre- to post-test showed increases in self-efficacy for communicating about suicidal concerns with a teacher, school counselor or social worker; increases in self-efficacy for helping others; and increases in response-efficacy of interpersonal communication about suicide with a teacher, school counselor or social worker.

Young adults need to be willing and able to intervene in life-threatening situations affecting their peers. In step with narrative empowerment education, personal experiences can be used to communicatively reduce peer resistance to behavior change.

Health communicators tend to rely on overly didactic education and awareness-raising when addressing suicide prevention. This research shows the importance of direct and personal forms of influence advocated by social marketing professionals.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the substance use disparities among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth, the contributing factors to these disparities, proven and promising approaches through strengths-based methods, barriers to implementation of prevention and treatment efforts, and future recommendations for effective programs and research.

Approach – We have conducted a thorough literature review of relevant research studies, as well as a review of government, tribal, and community-based curricula and resources. This review of programs is not exhaustive but provides several examples of best practices in the field and suggestions for future directions.

Social implications – We strongly advocate that to accurately explore the true etiology of substance abuse and to respond to the concerns that AI/AN have prioritized, it is necessary to utilize a strengths-based approach and draw upon traditional AI/AN perspectives and values, and active community participation in the process. More specifically, prevention and treatment programs should use methods that incorporate elders or intergenerational approaches; foster individual and family skills-building; promote traditional healing methods to recognize and treat historical, cultural, and intergenerational and personal trauma; focus on early intervention; and tailor efforts to each Native nation or community.

Value – Ultimately, to reduce substance abuse disparities in AI/AN youth, we must find better ways to merge traditional Native practices with western behavioral health to ensure cultural competency, as well as to develop mechanisms to effect system- and policy-level changes that reduce barriers to care and promote the well-being of AI/AN youth, families, and communities.

Effective community-based suicide prevention strategies require culturally relevant contextually driven approaches, validated by community members. Existing literature, funding agencies, and polices do not adequately address the differences in community vs non-community definitions and approaches to suicide prevention. These differences and the process must be articulated to fully understand the complexities of effective American Indian community-based suicide prevention strategies. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study uses a qualitative methodology to understand the process and meaning of an American Indian reservation's community-based approach to suicide prevention.

Seven recommendations emerge. These include: expand the understanding of suicide; plan activities and outreach early; uphold cultural values; build administrative and community capacity; prepare and respond to community needs and situations; anticipate challenges and develop solutions; and recognize the spiritual aspects of the endeavor.

This study provides new insight about the process in which American Indian communities define, develop and implement suicide prevention strategies that are culturally relevant and community driven. The process and recommendations may be useful for institutions, funding agencies, policy makers, and tribal leaders, and community-based prevention partners.

The purpose of this paper is to train primary health care workers to be trainers and implementers of community‐based AIDS prevention activities in Oyo State, Nigeria, by describing an evaluation of the project.

A total of 148 primary health care workers recruited from the 33 local government areas (LGA) of the state were trained as trainers. They were provided seed grants to replicate similar training for health workers, implement and evaluate community‐based AIDS prevention activities. Questionnaires were used before and after the training and the community based projects to evaluate its impact on knowledge of cause of AIDS, routes of HIV transmission, signs and symptoms of AIDS, and precautions to prevent.

At pre‐test, only 30.8 per cent of trainers could list at least four signs and symptoms of AIDS compared with 70.9 per cent who could do so after the training. The trainers trained 973 health workers; the number trained ranged from 20‐80 with a mean of 32.4. The trainers also implemented community‐based AIDS prevention interventions which reached 2,082 persons including adolescents (48.2 per cent), long‐distance drivers (16.6 per cent), market men and women (15.8 per cent), female sex workers (14.2 per cent), traditional birth attendants (4.6 per cent) and herdsmen and women (5.6 per cent). The evaluation conducted after four months of implementation of the community‐based projects showed improvement in knowledge of HIV among all the target groups. It suggests reduction in reported unprotected sex among drivers (from 44 per cent at pre‐test to 18.9 per cent at post‐test) and increase in reported consistent use of condoms (from 53.4 per cent at pre‐test to 71.4 per cent at post‐test) among female sex workers.

Primary health care workers can successfully implement community‐based HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

Primary health care workers can make important contributions to HIV/AIDS prevention and control efforts.

Health education interventions delivered by primary health care workers multiplied the effects of HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities.

Hartslag Limburg, a cardiovascular diseases (CVD) prevention programme, integrates a community strategy and a high‐risk strategy. The present paper presents the evaluation design for, and baseline data from, the community intervention. The conceptual framework of the community intervention and its evaluation study were based on programme planning and evaluation models. Within this framework, community organization principles and methods and health education theories and methods were applied. Pre‐test/post‐test control group designs were used to study changes at the individual and the organizational level. The baseline results confirm the need to carry out a comprehensive CVD prevention community project, and the appropriateness of the conceptual model that is used for the development of interventions.

This article aims to describe continuous quality improvement (CQI) for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs in a community‐based organization setting.

CQI (e.g., plan‐do‐study‐act cycles (PDSA)) applied in healthcare and industry was adapted for substance abuse prevention and treatment programs in a community setting. The authors assessed the resources needed, acceptability and CQI feasibility for ten programs by evaluating CQI training workshops with program staff and a series of three qualitative interviews over a nine‐month implementation period with program participants. The CQI activities, PDSA cycle progress, effort, enthusiasm, benefits and challenges were examined.

Results indicated that CQI was feasible and acceptable for community‐based substance abuse prevention and treatment programs; however, some notable resource challenges remain. Future studies should examine CQI impact on service quality and intended program outcomes.

The study was conducted on a small number of programs. It did not assess CQI impact on service quality and intended program outcomes.

This project shows that it is feasible to adapt CQI techniques and processes for community‐based programs substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. These techniques may help community‐based program managers to improve service quality and achieve program outcomes.

This is one of the first studies to adapt traditional CQI techniques for community‐based settings delivering substance abuse prevention and treatment programs.

As a result of awareness of the increasing school accidents in recent years and severe damage to school infrastructure by Typhoon Morakot, this paper seeks to discuss the current natural disaster prevention education strategy in Taiwan and investigates the seriously damaged schools from Typhoon Morakot.

Methods of analysis used in this paper include aerial photo interpretation of landslides and debris flows with the aid of field investigation and spatial rainfall distribution by GIS analysis. Additionally, the reasons attributed to the schools’ damages and disaster prevention education strategies in schools after Morakot are discussed.

After an overall review of the current disaster prevention education programs, the following items are to be stressed in disaster prevention education as a result of studying the effects of Typhoon Morakot: integration of disaster prevention education into formal school curricula; teacher training for campus disaster prevention education; development of a coalition of campus and community‐based disaster management; and study of the impact of climate change and school vulnerability. School infrastructure safety evaluation and risk assessment, education materials and design activities for psychological recovery after disasters, and the connection of school safety management and community‐based disaster prevention are deemed urgent after Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.

The current achievements of disaster prevention education in Taiwan include the development of operation and support mechanisms, curricula development and experimental schools selection, development of teacher training program, the popularization of disaster prevention education, the development and use of learning materials, and the determination of an effective assessment mechanism. It is expected that disaster prevention education will become part of the formal school curricula. School safety and vulnerability assessments as a result of climate change and student psychological recovery following disasters are urgent lessons to be implemented after learning from the results of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.

The aims of this study were to determine (1) the degree to which an evidence‐based intervention (EBI) delivered outside the context of a research trial remained faithful to the content and design of the programme as intended and as reported in experimental trials of the same programme, and (2) whether implementation quality affected programme outcomes. We report results of an observational study of 11 sites involved in the statewide dissemination of a popular family‐focused prevention programme, the Strengthening Families Programme for Parents and Youth 10‐14. We found numerous differences between the community‐based implementations we observed and researcher‐driven implementations of the same programme, but variability in programme delivery and adherence to content were unrelated to programme outcomes. We conclude that short‐term outcomes of well‐designed EBIs delivered by well‐trained facilitators may be robust to minor changes in delivery and content. However, the effects of implementation quality on longer‐term outcomes are unknown.

The importance of community-based organizations to support relief works in the aftermath of disasters is widely recognized as indispensable in providing quickly the needed help for affected populations (Bajek, Matsuda, & Okada, 2008; Nagasaka, 2008; Norris, Stevens, Pfefferbaum, Wyche, & Pfefferbaum, 2008; Shaw & Goda, 2004; Suzuki, 2006). Although communities’ involvement in rescue operations is essential, their role in rehabilitation and future disaster preparedness activities is equally important in the process of forming a disaster-resilient society (Nagasaka, 2008). Furthermore, the level of interaction between local authorities and communities within different phases (preparedness, relief, and rehabilitation) of the disaster management cycle requires attention to effectively implement community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR).

High suicide rates among men presents a global challenge for commissioners and clinicians. Innovative approaches towards suicide prevention interventions designed for men are needed. The James’ Place (JP) service opened in 2018, and its model of practice is a clinical, community-based intervention for men experiencing suicidal crisis. This paper aims to describe the implementation framework within which the JP model is applied.

Fostering a public health case study approach, this paper provides a description of how the JP service operates, including the referral pathways, key components of this innovative model and its impact upon the men who receive the intervention. Illustrative case studies derived from semi-structured interviews from men and therapists are reported.

The JP model is dynamic and flexible, allowing the tailoring of a suicidal crisis intervention to suit the needs and priorities of the individual and the wider local community. Clinical and practical implications, such as reduction in suicidality, are discussed.

Rapidly accessible, effective community-based interventions for men experiencing suicidal crisis are required. Yet, while widely advocated in policy, there remains a dearth of evidence illustrating the real-world application and value of such services within a community-setting. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the JP model is the first of its kind in the UK and an example of an innovative clinical, community-based suicide prevention intervention offering support for men experiencing suicidal crisis.