1. Building a bridge between prevention research and practice
Lx2017
Maximilian von Heyden
Building a bridge between prevention research and practice

2. A perennial problem
The divide between research and practice in prevention and education has been known and debated for more than 100 years (Dewey, 1904; Shulman, 1998)
Quality standards in drug prevention are widely discussed but not effectively implemented (Burkhart, 2015; Brotherhood, 2016)
Although effective interventions are available, few data about long- term outcomes exist (>1o years).
Training in evidence based prevention does not guarantee constant and reliable implementation

3. A complex problem

4. A complex problem But also ..
Ideological in nature (in research and practice)
competition between stakeholders (politicians, social organizations)
competition between providers (fundraising, marketing)

5. Background and development of REBOUND
2010: Lack of any programme (1) addressing youth in late adolescence („hot phase“) and (2) empowering pedagogues and parents to address substance use issues in and outside of school
Logic Model

6. Development of REBOUND
2018
Planning for 2. RCT study
2016
Training multiplicators
2015
Implementing REBOUND in Germany, Austria, CH, Luxembourg …
Building improved version REBOUND 1.0
Founding as a container for implementation
DPIP grant
Getting to know EDPQS
Developing REBOUND 0.5
Implementing in model schools
First mixed- method controlled study
2009
Starting a drug education laboratory
Writing EU grant
2007
Organizing a national conference „New ways in prevention“w with Mentor Foundation
Starting a 10- year- longitudinal study with a school sample (14y- 24y)

7. Characteristic of the REBOUND programme?
16 units
Social skills
Resilience
Risk- competence
Self-reflection
Information
Change of perspective
Reliable information
Closer look at course topics
Self-assessment
course assistants
life-lines lesson
lesson and method development
Staff development
School development modules
Supervision, intervision, team teaching, feedback methods
manualisied course
website
Peer-mentoring
organisational development

8. Implementation process and challenges
“Practice has a logic which is not that of the logician.”
- Pierre Bourdieu,1990
Who is training the trainers?
How can quality delivery be ensured on a large scale?
How do we handle the needs of practitioners?
How can universal programmes become part of a chain of prevention?

9. Implementation process and challenges: comparison of two ideal type schools
1. Coordinating prevention education leaders in staff
2. Sucessful team building (up to one third of staff in REBOUND trainings)
3. Existing classroom management abilities
4. Acceptance of school drug policy
5. Full organizational commitment
6. Making use of team supervision
7. Error tolerance and willingness to repair
1. Undefined responsibility
2. Individual enthusiasts (lone wolves)
3. Lack of classroom management abilities
4. Intransparency in or ignorance of school drug policy
5. No or flawed organizational commitment
6. Ignoring team supervision
7. Unwillingnes to accept own failability

10. science and practice Funding gap Solution
Programme development cycle and esp. implementation NOT properly funded
Unclear responsibilities (health vs. education)
 Although important, funding is not the most relevant implementation challenge
Solution
Focus on „small but beautiful“ implementation, sustainable growth  build models of practice instead of large dissemination

11. Conclusions: Bridges and gaps
Monitoring gap in all areas of prevention in the school system
significant, unknown number of pedagogues trained in prevention programmes and uncertain implementation status
considerable differences in sustainable implementation between trained teachers
How can a structured knowledge-transfer from practice to research be organized?
Should unsuitable pedagogues be restrained from delivering prevention?
Strategy
External and internal evaluation tools
E-learning for trainers

12. Conclusions: Bridges and gaps
Many policy decision makers ..
are not informed about about effective prevention
don’t differentiate between different levels of evidence
build their decisions on the VIP model ( influencers that are not necessarily evidence based)
argue about the already high quality of prevention by relying on concept papers and formal agreements
Workforce
Lack of university based training in principles of prevention
Lack of further education

13. Conclusions: Bridges and gaps
Monitoring gap on the level of schools/classes themselves
Teachers and students don‘t know about their own system
Strategy
online self-evaluation tools

14. Research outlook Additional research aspects adding up to RCT designs
Mediating factors
- describe and learn from high performers among programme facilitators and students
( additionally use film methods to depict those persons and factors for other trainers)
Ethical aspects
- Unveil and describe the longterm side effects of successful and unsuccessful program participation on the individual level (and compare to average achievements in prevention)  longitudinal research
Systemic aspects
- Integrate school based prevention into a chain of prevention
- Describe school organizational changes in detail

15. Prevention in the 21st. century?
research practice

16. Contact
Maximilian von Heyden

17. Background and development: pilot evaluation
Controlled study 2012
n IG + CG = 723 students in five schools and 46 classes, M age = 14.8, range 14-18
controlled study with repeated measurement pre-post (4-6 months)
lower incidence rates of drunkenness (odds ratio [OR] = .55; p = .033)
improved knowledge about psychoactive substances (p = .006)
decrease in 30-day prevalence for alcohol (p = .017) and cannabis (p = .014)
lower personal (p = .013) and general tobacco risk perception among users (p = .002)
lower general tobacco (p = .018) and cannabis (p = .000) risk perception in non-users
Conclusion: e.g. included tobacco lesson in next version 1.0

18. Goals of REBOUND as a prevention program
Primary goals
Raise awareness for and foster personal strengths (=life skills)
AWARENESS
RISK COMPETENCE OF INDIVIDUALS
RISK COMPETENCE AS A NORM
Secondary goal
4. Implement tools for environmental prevention e.g. school drug policy
Tertiary goal
5. Improve the capability of society (teachers, parents, students) to talk about positive and negative aspects of substance use and their relation to emotional needs ( move away from „addiction paradigm“) and thereby participate in the democratic process

19. REBOUND and current evidence-base