Chapter 3: Social Ecology and Substance Abuse Programs

1. Chapter 3: Social Ecology and Substance Abuse Programs

2. Historical Background: Program Implementation as a Process Within Formal Organizations • Prior to the 1980's Agencies were the dominant emphasis of program implementation models - and not communities • Since the 1980's emphasis has been community - wide health promotion intervention Contemporary Approach Program Implementation as a Community-wide Process • Social Ecology models and strategies have evolved in response to the early critiques of community-wide Programming (Minkler, 1989)

3. Social Ecology as a Contemporary Context for Understanding Implementations • The Social Ecology Perspective holds that the potential to change individual behavior is considered within the social and cultural context in which it occurs • Interventions that are informed by this perspective are directed mainly at social factors, such as community norms and the structure of community services including their comprehensiveness, coordination, and linkages, in addition to individual motivation and attitude • An Implementation model based on Social Ecology Principals  • Social Ecology Approaches in Ethnic Minority Communities

4. Ecological interventions take cultural and social factors into account and, in order to achieve cultural and social relevance, intervention pathways and mechanisms may operate differently across socioeconomic or racial/ethnic groups • Bridging the Gap between Model and Practice Conclusion • Thesis of chapter 3 - The need to bridge the gap between the desire to implement community-based programs that address socially enmeshed health programs and the development of culturally appropriate models and related strategies that may increase the outcomes which are expected