European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) for Decision, Opinion and Policy Makers: Implementation and Lessons Learnt in Croatia.

Abstract

The Laboratory for Prevention Research (PrevLab) (University of Zagreb Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences (UniZG ERF) has a long-standing involvement in EU projects that developed the EUPC curriculum and associated training (DOPs, frontline prevention practitioners and academic version) led to the implementation and dissemination of the EUPC throughout Croatia. In this article, the focus is on the EUPC for DOPs, as the training of DOPs has emerged as a priority in the process of implementing a quality prevention system in the country. The Implementation of EUPC training for DOPs is carried out in close collaboration between Service on Addiction Policies of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (Further: CIPH) and PrevLab. PrevLab ensures that the training materials are constantly updated based on (inter)national research and provides supervision for the trainers, while CIPH provides the financial and organisational resources for the implementation of the training. To date, 119 DOPs have participated in the training and the evaluation results show that the learning outcomes of the training have been achieved. An evaluation tool still needs to be developed to assess the impact of the EUPC training for DOPs on the national prevention system. In addition, further measures need to be taken to ensure the recognition and participation of high-level DOPs in the EUPC training. A strong factor promoting the (further) implementation of EUPC training for DOPs is the fact that the need for DOP training on evidence-based prevention is recognised in national documents in the field of substance use prevention, as well as the strong support from CIPH, an organisation with high credibility and influence at national level, and the national focal point of the EUDA.