http://www.nurturingenvironments.org/2009/09/08/prevention-and-health-care-costs/ Promoting the spread of nurturing environments. Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:40:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.nurturingenvironments.org/2009/09/08/prevention-and-health-care-costs/comment-page-1/#comment-1785 Diana Fishbein Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:27:42 +0000 http://www.nurturingenvironments.org/?p=96#comment-1785 There are unprecedented opportunities with this new administration to truly make a difference in the onset and escalation of disease and disorder by refocusing our efforts on suboptimal environments conducive to dysfunction which we have tolerated for so long. The unfortunate reality, as expressed by Dr. Tony Biglan, is that the downstream focus on disease and disorder after it develops has persisted despite years of prevention research documenting that environmental and behavioral interventions have potential to not only ameliorate or reduce the severity of problems, but to prevent their occurrence altogether. As stated, behavioral and psychological problems such as aggression, drug abuse, overeating, unhealthy diets, alcoholism, academic failure, depression, traumatic stress, etc., are associated with tremendous financial, health, and public safety costs. Yet, the congressional budget does not reflect on the part of its authors an understanding of these problems and the potential for preventing them. Research that employs a “systems approach” from a transdisciplinary perspective and using multiple tools to understand the development of these problems, are most likely to shed significant light on their sources. Restricting our focus to conditions proposed by any one discipline (e.g., social factors, neurobiological function, etc.) will continue to address only part of the equation. Rather, integration between disciplines, from the social and environmental sciences to neuroscience, is critical to view the whole picture and all of its components in any study of complex human behaviors. And given what we know to date – that the underpinnings of these problems are malleable – investing in this research will no doubt produce an extraordinary cost-savings and at the same time improve quality of life for many. There are unprecedented opportunities with this new administration to truly make a difference in the onset and escalation of disease and disorder by refocusing our efforts on suboptimal environments conducive to dysfunction which we have tolerated for so long. The unfortunate reality, as expressed by Dr. Tony Biglan, is that the downstream focus on disease and disorder after it develops has persisted despite years of prevention research documenting that environmental and behavioral interventions have potential to not only ameliorate or reduce the severity of problems, but to prevent their occurrence altogether. As stated, behavioral and psychological problems such as aggression, drug abuse, overeating, unhealthy diets, alcoholism, academic failure, depression, traumatic stress, etc., are associated with tremendous financial, health, and public safety costs. Yet, the congressional budget does not reflect on the part of its authors an understanding of these problems and the potential for preventing them. Research that employs a “systems approach” from a transdisciplinary perspective and using multiple tools to understand the development of these problems, are most likely to shed significant light on their sources. Restricting our focus to conditions proposed by any one discipline (e.g., social factors, neurobiological function, etc.) will continue to address only part of the equation. Rather, integration between disciplines, from the social and environmental sciences to neuroscience, is critical to view the whole picture and all of its components in any study of complex human behaviors. And given what we know to date – that the underpinnings of these problems are malleable – investing in this research will no doubt produce an extraordinary cost-savings and at the same time improve quality of life for many.

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