Social and Community Interventions

Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in preventing HIV risk behaviour in injecting drug users

“…Community interventions differ from those we have described in that they are designed to change the norms of entire communities or populations of individuals. Such interventions have proved effective in dealing with other problem health behaviours [52][53][54], and show promise in preventing the spread of HIV. As an example, a community intervention evaluated by Kegeles et al [55] succeeded in decreasing by 45% the proportion of gay men in Eugene (Oregon, USA) aged 18-29 years old, reporting unprotected anal intercourse with nonprimary partners, and by 24% the proportion reporting unprotected anal intercourse with boyfriends.…”

The prospect and purpose of locating community research and action in religious settings

“…Of course, many persons will vary on their exact emphases and ordering of what they see as key constructs of community psychology, however, we believe that there are sufficient common values to warrant consideration of important priorities of the field. We reviewed several sources to arrive at these positions-historical articles about the founding of community mental health and community psychology (Bennett, Anderson, Cooper, Hassol, Klein, & Rosenblum, 1966;Cook, 1970;Joint Commission of Mental Illness and Health, 1961;Kelly, 1970;Smith & Hobbs, 1966), early reviews of the field (Cowen, 1973;Rappaport, 1977), and more recent reviews of the field (Bond, 1997;Gesten & Jason, 1987;Kelly, 1990;Mulvey, 1988). We present data showing the potential value of work in religious settings as it relates to (a) prevention, (b) promotion of well-being, (c) empowerment, (d) consideration of phenomena at different levels of analysis, (e) working in existing settings, (f ) promoting social change and social justice, and (g) creating a sense of community.…”

A media-based stress management intervention

“…Periodic appraisals of implemented projects show that community interventions have been of much smaller scale and that many if not most have been directed to particular individuals or particular groups within the community (Gesten & Jason, 1987;Novaco & Monahan, 1980). Clearly, a need exists for more innovative types of programs to lower community members' barriers to participation in such health promotion programs, to reach larger segments of the population at risk for healthcompromising behaviors, to begin counteracting prevalent media influences that explicitly encourage and promote unhealthy life-style patterns, and to build competencies and orientations that prevent maladaptive coping from becoming established in the first place.…”