Barry A. Edelstein

Larry Michelson

Americans are "healing themselves" (Heckler, 1985) and prevention has taken root (McGinnis, 1985a). We are altering our lifestyle to reduce physical and mental health risks. Perhaps as important is the fact that the science of prevention is beginning to catch up with the practices of prevention, although some might argue that the popularity of these practices far outstrips sound theoretical and empirical foundations. The chapter authors in this volume examine the theoretical and empirical foundations of many current prevention practices and, where data exist, discuss the status of prevention efforts. Where substantial prevention is not yet on the horizon, the authors attempt to point us in the right direction or at least share with the reader some of the risk factors that should be addressed in our research. We hope that readers will be stimulated to discuss the issues raised, advance the current research, and, where possible, adopt the prevention and health promotion strategies that are supported by sound theoretical and empirical work. This volume can in no way be comprehensive with respect to the current work in prevention; however, we hope that we have provided a sampling of prevention activities and issues that appear together in one volume for perhaps the first time. The primary intent of this volume is modest, and the reader should not attempt to find continuity among the various chapters. The only binding among these contributions is their focus on prevention.

Handbook of Prevention

Eugene T. Couture

This book developed out of the editors' longstanding interest in the retraining of traumatically brain-damaged adults and the management of their behavior by family members. A search for relevant experimental evidence to support the clinical use of behavioral principles for retrain ing, which began in 1977, turned up little empirical support. Moreover, the literature on retraining was dispersed among a variety of journals published in various countries. Nowhere was there a compendium of literature that addressed issues of assessment and retraining. There was no place to turn if one wanted to move from a standard neuropsy chological evaluation to the retraining of skill deficits revealed in the evaluation. We have attempted to edit a book that represents what we had hoped to find in the literature and could be used by professionals in clinical psychology, clinical neuropsychology, rehabilitation medicine, physical therapy, speech therapy, and other disciplines that address rehabilitation of brain-damaged adults-a book that addresses assess ment and rehabilitation issues and is sufficiently detailed to offer the reader a starting point in developing behavioral assessment and re habilitation programs. The book contains conceptual foundations, re views of research, descriptions of successful rehabilitation programs, and relatively detailed approaches to the retraining of specific skills. A shift from an assessment-based practice to one encompassing both prescriptive assessment and treatment has become a recognized transition in the neuropsychological literature and was best articulated in an article by Gerald Goldstein in March of 1979.

Barry A. Edelstein

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