[Elaboration and evaluation of mental health promotion programmes exemplified by a primary prevention alcohol...

The article's aim is a presentation of the process a/elaboration and evaluation of the designed mental health prevention programmes. Keeping the logic of this process (from overall goal setting to outcome assessment) increases the chance that resources for preventive and research activities will be used in the most favourable way. The process starting point is the establishment of the general goal of the programme. At this stage the clarification how the term "mental health promotion" and prevention activities are understood is crucial. The definition choice determines the area of activity and points out the target group. It is important to base the programme on solid theoretical and empirical evidence. This implies the necessity of collecting data from various fields, e.g. mental health, developmental, educational and cognitive psychology as well as epidemiological and evaluation studies. All gathered information will permit the formulation of more operational programme goals, which will lead the authors to choose prevention topics and methods. It is also easy to convert the operational goals to evaluation questions related to the key elements of the programme. In turn, evaluation questions allow the creation of evaluation indicators. The following step is the selection of measurement methods and evaluation strategy. The process description is illustrated by the example of primary prevention alcohol programme "Program Domowych Detektywow" which is the Polish adaptation of the US "Slick Tracy Home Team" programme (a part of the "Northland Project"). The problems and difficulties related to the various phases of the process of programme development are discussed. The problems with evaluation planning and finding a compromise between methodological standards and real life conditions are underlined.