Malczyce, Poland: a multifaceted community action project in eastern Europe in a time of rapid economic change

The major focus of this paper is the sustainability of a one-year demonstration project on drug misuse prevention, which was implemented in a local community affected by acute economic crisis and high unemployment. The project was initiated by the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, and supported by the European Commission. The primary goal of the project was to demonstrate that community-based prevention is possible and feasible within the context of current transitions in Poland. Its major outcome was a community prevention package consisting of a number of booklets and videos to assist other communities in their prevention efforts. Experiences from this study suggest that factors contributing to the sustainability of a community prevention project can be identified and emphasized through simple analysis of community surveys, as well as focus group discussion.