Long-Term Outcomes of Prevention Interventions: Can Mental Health Disorders be Prevented and Implemented in Communities?

The last few decades have yielded the development and testing of numerous efficacious and effective prevention interventions, that have focused on behavioral health problems and disorders, including mental health, substance abuse, violence, health-risking sexual behaviors related to HIV/AIDS, etc. They have been implemented across the life-course, from prenatal through young adulthood and adulthood, in different contexts (e.g., family, school, community, child welfare, etc.), at varying levels of prevention (universal, selective, indicated, tiered), and across the research cycle (novel translation from basic science, development and testing, efficacy, effectiveness, and implementation and dissemination). In addition, there are a number of prevention studies in which participants have been followed many years after the intervention was implemented to examine impact on proximal and distal outcomes. The goal of this Roundtable is to bring together prevention scientists who have interventions with long-term outcomes to discuss the following questions: 1) Can mental health disorders be prevented? Where is there certainty around effective prevention approaches?; 2) What has been the uptake of positive research findings?; Which stakeholders/policy makers have implemented evidence-based prevention approaches, and to what extent have stakeholders/policy makers sustained implementation efforts over time?; 3) What are the lessons learned from these efforts (i.e., dissemination and implementation strategies that resulted in enduring programs versus approaches that did not pan out in the long term)?; 4) What do we need to know in order to increase the impact of existing approaches (e.g., new information technologies, decision science approaches, social science insights, etc.)?; and 5) Which scientific questions and opportunities related to prevention in mental health require new research investments? The exploration of these questions will facilitate a better understanding of accomplishments and gaps in the mental health prevention research literature.