Issues surrounding the institutionalization of local action programmes to prevent alcohol problems: Results from a community trial in the United States

Abstract

If a prevention effort to reduce community-level alcohol problems is effective, an important consideration is whether that prevention effort continues after the emphasis on the issue or the special funding or the unique attention is past. In other words, is the project in-stitutionalized into the community and thus sustained naturally by the community itself? This question has been often overlooked in community research. This paper discusses elements which contribute to or impede efforts to institutionalize a community prevention programme. The data from which these conclusions are drawn are derived from key informant interviews and archival and media data collection from a six-community national community prevention trial to reduce alcohol-involved injuries and death in the United States.