The effectiveness of prevention to enhance human functioning and reduce psychological distress has been demon-Successful preventive interventions are typically theory driven, culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate, and delivered across multiple contexts (Nation et al., 2003). Preventive services and interventions help to further the health and well-being of individuals, communities, and nations (Satcher, 2000; World Health Organization, 2008). Expanding preventive services reduces the costs of mental health care (Tolan & Dodge, 2005), while emerging technological innovations (e.g., telehealth) offer promise for From infancy through adulthood, access to preventive services and interventions is important to improve the quality of life and human functioning and reduce illness Prevention has typically taken a developmental approach, focusing on children and adolescents , in order to facilitate trajectories leading to positive outcomes (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine , 2009). Children and adolescents are at significant risk for substance abuse, violence, and sexually transmitted infections, and their access to quality health services is limitedmal development may be impeded at large costs to society, and additional strains imposed on families. In any given year, 14%–20% of children and adolescents experience a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder (National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2009). In addition, national surveys show that the majority of youth who could potentially benefit from mental health services do not receive services (Ringel & Sturm, 2001). Early and focused interventions can limit the length and severity of symptoms and enhance functioning (Cicchetti & Toth, 1992; Durlak, Weissberg, & Pachan, 2010). Prevention also includes the collaborative design and delivery of strengths-based health promotion and environmental improvement strategies (e.g., Cowen, 1985). Health promotion approaches equip people with life skills and coping competencies, such as problem-solving skills, contributing to their capacity to live more fully while being better able to withstand future stressful life events. Preventive services and interventions also address issues of health, educational, and social inequities that reflect disparities across demographic groups such as those based on race, gender, and socioeconomic class. Environmental improvement prevention strategies, such as consultation to improve community–family–school coordination or interventions to help communities create well-paying jobs, aim to inform social policy, which can minimize or eliminate factors contributing to unhealthy functioning. The importance of prevention is consistent with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), which calls for expansion of preventive services to maximize positive health outcomes, as well as with the U. which " provides an unprecedented …

The overall goal of the paper is to illuminate some of the substantial challenges, joys, issues and lessons involved with international counseling and to lend impetus to advancing its progress by embracing globally-relevant cultural principles. Five U.S. counseling professionals with extensive international experience recount aspects of their scholarship, teaching, research and service in that domain. The meaning of such experiences was analyzed from an ecological perspective. The analysis was then critiqued for its primary assertions and implications for the internationalization of counseling by two independent professional counseling commentators, both of whom have logged considerable life and work experience around the world.

AbstractAbstract This chapter’s two tables present illustrative markers of prevention events that have occurred within counseling psychology and within prevention per se. These markers are addressed selectively in the chapter’s narrative, which is organized sequentially as follows: (1) “Early Antecedents”; (2) “A Decade of Fomentation: The 1960s”; (3) “Prevention Emerges in the 1970s”; (4) “Prevention Expands: 1980s–Current,” with attention to 1980–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2010; and (5) “Future Directions.” The thesis is that prevention in counseling psychology remains an artifact of hope. Although impressive scholarly production has occurred at an increasing pace since around 1985 and the Society of Counseling Psychology has formalized its support of prevention through its Prevention Section, “real world” demonstrations of gains—through training curricula, research, and employment—suggest that prevention remains still on the outside looking in. Yet due largely to the noticeable increase in prevention professional literature and to passage of health care reform legislation, the time for prevention in counseling psychology may finally have come—though we should be mindful that we’ve heard that refrain sung before.

This introductory article by the editors summarizes the intent, content, and procedures of the special issue and makes a supportive case for the future of effective prevention groups that draws from the pioneer research contained within it. Researchers are summoned to prioritize prevention groups as an important and viable focal area, journals are encouraged to welcome research of this topic (without altering acceptance criteria), concurrence about definitions of key processes and concepts (i.e., how to define prevention groups) is urged, and others are encouraged to draw lessons from the research of the authors contained in the special issue.