Prevention Agenda 2013-2018: Promote Mental Health and Prevent Substance Abuse (MHSA) Action Plan

Mental and emotional well being is essential to overall health.1 The best opportunities to improve the public's mental health are interventions delivered before a disorder manifests itself, to prevent its development. For the Institute of Medicine Intervention Spectrum and other information, read more

Evidence-based programs, policies and practices

Evidence Based Interventions and Measures to Assess Progress, December 2015 (Refresh Document) (PDF)

  • The DOH has updated the Prevention Agenda's recommended set of evidence based programs, policies and practices to help local communities address local priorities. These recommendations are based on a review of the scientific literature, consultation with subject matter experts within the Department and external partners and the actual experience of local partnerships as reported on the Update Survey completed in December 2014. The goal of this revision is to provide local communities with a set of interventions that offer local communities the best prospects of making meaningful progress in addressing chosen priorities. For each recommended intervention, the charts include short-term process measures to assess progress, as well as resources describing evidence-informed policies, programs and systems changes that will improve the variety of factors known to affect health.

Action Plan

Focus Area 1: Promote mental, emotional and behavioral (MEB) well-being in communities

The 2009 Institute of Medicine report concluded there is increasing evidence promotion of positive aspects of mental health is an important approach to reducing MEB disorders and related problems. It will serve as a foundation for both prevention and treatment of MEB disorders.

Focus Area 2: Prevent Substance Abuse and other Mental Emotional Behavioral Disorders

Substance abuse, depression and other MEB disorders hurt the health, public safety, welfare, education, and functioning of New York State residents. In addition to evidence substance abuse and other MEB disorders can be prevented, there is confirmation that early identification and adequate societal support can prevent and alleviate serious consequences such as death, poor functioning and chronic illness.

Focus Area 3: Strengthen Infrastructure across Systems

MEB health promotion and disorders prevention is a relatively new field, requiring a paradigm shift in approach and perspective. Meaningful data and information at the local level, training on quality improvement, evaluation and evidence-based approaches, and cross-disciplinary collaborations need to be strengthened.

References

Related Data Resources

Note: The Prevention Agenda 2013-2017 has been extended to 2018 to align its timeline with other state and federal health care reform initiatives.