The Ventura County Behavioral Health Department, Alcohol and Drug Programs, Prevention Division adopts a systems approach to prevention planning and delivery:

The systems approach emphasizes a way of thinking that looks at events or problems as functions of a larger whole rather than as pieces existing in isolation. Rather than explaining alcohol-and drug -related problems by only looking for flaws in the individual, it is essential to recognize how individual behavior influences and is influenced by the larger systems of the family, the community and the social environment. To study any one of these systems in isolation is to inevitably obtain only a partial view of problems related to alcohol and/or drugs.

The systems approach provides a broad theoretical framework for organizing information and understanding relationships in real world settings. It focuses not on trying to understand the whole by assessing its individual parts, but on understanding the interconnectedness between those parts and how the relationships between them comprise the larger whole.

• Introduction
• Selected Concepts of the Systems Approach
• Prevention Framework
• Goals
• Prevention Strategies
• Prevention Providers List

Adapted from: Framework For Preventing Alcohol and Drug Problems
State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.