What is Upstream Prevention?

Imagine you are standing next to a stream. Suddenly you see a person in the water calling for help! You quickly pull the person out of the water and almost immediately notice a second person in the stream calling for help. You quickly pull that person from the water but yet another person is in the water calling for help. What is going on??? While you could continue standing at the edge of the stream and pulling people out of the water, you also could send someone upstream to see why so many people are falling into the water in the first place.

From where we are standing, there is upstream and downstream. Downstream is reactive. We are pulling people out of the water when they come to us. Upstream is prevention. In prevention we are working to promote healthy environments and prevent problems before they occur. We are trying to stop people from falling into the water.

EPIC is focused on prevention. We are focused on identifying upstream issues. Prevention efforts through EPIC are centered around finding out what is causing youth to abuse substances in our community and then working to reduce those risks. If you would like to get involved with EPIC and youth substance use prevention, please contact Mollie at mmustoe@qbhs.org to learn more.