Starting prevention work

This article provides basic, practical guidelines for starting prevention work; it draws upon ten years' experience of professional staff members at a community mental health center. Difficulties that stand in the way of prevention are first discussed. The difficulties include professional habits, defenses, and taboos, as well as lack of theory, training, and institutional support. The main body of the article provides examples of effective and ineffective ways of starting prevention, that is, promoting mental health in the community. Recommendations are made for using a normal developmental life-crisis framework, and starting small action models that can later be generalized to diverse settings and have potential for long-lasting effects in the community.