Transferring the Knowledge into Practice: Implementation of European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS) in Croatia

Introduction: Since 2010, Office for Combating Drug Abuse of the Government of the Republic of Croatia (OCDA), and Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences University of Zagreb (ERFUNIZG) have been conducting collaborative projects with the purpose of improving Croatian drug use prevention efforts, programs and strategies. The latest example of knowledge translation into practice is implementation of the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS). The aims of the study were to explore (1) needs of prevention program providers and other stakeholders for trainings & capacity building in order to support the EDPQS implementation and improve the prevention quality, (2) resources and strengths of prevention programs providers for development, implementation and evaluation of prevention programs in accordance with EDPQS and (3) opportunities and challenges of EDPQS implementation process in the areas of Cross-cuting Considerations as well as in first two stages of the project cycle – Needs Assessment and Resource Assessment.

Methods. Online-Survey for program providers was conducted (November/December 2016). Participants were 164 prevention program providers, aged from 24 – 62 years with working experiences years from 1 – 37 and background education in psychology (18.9%), social pedagogy (20.7%) and pedagogy (49.4%). Descriptive statistic were used.

Results: Prevention program providers perceived that EDPQS implementation is highly important. However, there is still some unfavorable attitudes and opinions toward prevention (e.g. “Prevention program should be implemented even if there is no proof of effectiveness”). The assessment of prevention program providers knowledge, skills and competencies showed that the main challenges are in the field of program development/evaluation and obtaining the funds for prevention program development/implementation. Regarding readiness and capacity of organization for EDPQS implementation there is moderate motivation and moderate level of readiness.

Conclusion. Obtained results implicate that there is a need for further, systematic, investment in enhancing prevention program providers knowledge, skills and competencies, especially in the field of program logic model development, evaluation and funding (project proposal writing). Also, there is a need to enhance motivation, readiness and capacity of organizations for EDPQS implementation with the major challenge of employment of available resources, improvement of existing ones and investment in development of new resources. Based on resented results OCDA and ERF UNIZG organized training on EDPQS implementation for prevention program providers in February, 2017.