The environmental approach

In last week's post about Project Extra Mile, I praised Diane Riibe for her advocacy of the environmental approach to underage drinking prevention.  Just what is the environmental approach?  It is perhaps easiest to explain by contrasting it with an individual approach.

The individual approach focuses on young people who are under the legal drinking age.  It uses strategies aimed at convincing them that they should refrain from consuming alcohol until they reach the legal age.  It threatens them with consequences for violating the law.  It attempts to educate them about the effects of alcohol, and about the risks of underage drinking.

The environmental approach, conversely, focuses on making changes not in the individual, but in the external environment.  Such changes often involve public policy and legislation.  Typical examples would be raising the legal drinking age, lowering the threshold for driving under the influence, strategies to reduce access to alcohol by those underage, increases in alcohol excise taxes, heightened accountability for adult providers. Tools for an environmental approach might also include compliance checks for retail establishments, efforts to reduce marketing aimed at youth, and more.

I am a strong believer in the environmental approach, and these are strategies that we used extensively during the 12 years I co-chaired Lincoln's campus-community coalition to reduce high risk drinking by young people, NU Directions (which subsequently transitioned to the Nebraska Collegiate Consortium).  These strategies, however, do not entirely replace those aimed at individuals. I still firmly believe in holding individual underage drinkers responsible for their actions, and for doing what we can to ensure that they understand the consequences.  An environmental approach, however, is appealing in its efficacy: it offers a big bang for the buck.

At last Wednesday's Project Extra Mile recognition dinner, a speaker did a good job of explaining the a dozens of overheated students on the verge of heat-related illness.  You could rush about to each, have them stop their physical activity and sit or lie down, apply cool damp washcloths to their head and neck, and provide each with cool water to drink.  That would be an individual approach.  Or, you could turn down the thermostat, and turn on the ceiling fans--an environmental approach.

Better yet, you could use a combined approach: tweak the HVAC, ramp up the fans, stop the scrimmage, and push the liquids.