Certified Prevention Specialist Exam answers ( A+
GRADED 100% VERIFIED) 2025/2026
What is Behavioral Health? - ✔✔✔A state of mental/emotional being and/or choices and actions that affect health
and wellness.
What are some behavioral health problems? - ✔✔✔Substance abuse or misuse
Alcohol and drug addiction
Mental and substance use disorders
Serious psychological distress
Suicide
What two entities influence the field of prevention in behavioral health? - ✔✔✔The public health approach and
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Continuum of Care
What is Public Health? - ✔✔✔It is what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be
healthy.
Public Health Approach Key Characteristics - ✔✔✔Promotion and prevention (focus on wellness and preventing
problems)
Population based (focus on the population, not individual)
Risk and protective factors (factors that influence the problem)
Multiple contexts (contexts related to the ecological model by how one is influenced (family, community, school,
and culture)
Developmental perspective ( consider the developmental stage of life)
Planning process (deliberate, active and ongoing planning process)
5 Questions of the Public Health Approach - ✔✔✔What - What substance use and other behavioral problems need
to be addressed
Who - Who will the interventions focus on
When - When in the developmental stage is the intervention focusing on
Why - Why are these problems occurring? Risk and Protective Factors
, How - How do we do effective prevention?
The IOM Continuum of Care Breakdown - ✔✔✔Promotion - involves interventions (e.g. programs, practices, or
environmental strategies)
Prevention (3 types) - Universal (general public; community policies, education to physicians, social skills for
youth), Selective (subgroup identified as having a risk of developing SUD; prevention education for new immigrant
families, peer support groups), Indicated (high-risk individuals identified as having minimal signs; referral and
information for those who violate campus or community policies on alcohol and drug usage, screening and referral
for older adults admitted to ER with alcohol related injuries)
Treatment - interventions and standard forms of treatment
Maintenance - interventions focusing on long-term treatment to reduce relapse
Recovery - process of change where individuals improve their health and wellness
SAMHSA Eight Dimensions of Wellness - ✔✔✔occupational, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, emotional,
financial, environmental
Prevention History - ✔✔✔1950s - scare tactics through films and speakers
1960s - scare tactics, information about substance abuse
1970s - drug curricula based on factual information, curricula based on communication, decision-making, values
clarification, and self-esteem
1980s - Parent-formed organizations to combat drug-abuse, social skills curricula, refusal skill training
1990s - Community-based approaches to prevention, environmental approaches, media campaigns, culturally
sensitive programs
2000-2010 - evidence-based models, comprehensive programs, data-driven decision making
2010-present - evidence-based practices, strategic planning process, improved access to health insurance that
covers mental health and substance abuse services
Risk factors - ✔✔✔certain biological, psychological, family, community, or cultural characteristics that precede and
are associated with a higher likelihood of behavioral health problems
Protective factors - ✔✔✔characteristics at the individual, family, or community level that are associated with a
lower likelihood of problem outcomes
Risk and Protective Factor Domains - ✔✔✔Individual, family, community, and society
GRADED 100% VERIFIED) 2025/2026
What is Behavioral Health? - ✔✔✔A state of mental/emotional being and/or choices and actions that affect health
and wellness.
What are some behavioral health problems? - ✔✔✔Substance abuse or misuse
Alcohol and drug addiction
Mental and substance use disorders
Serious psychological distress
Suicide
What two entities influence the field of prevention in behavioral health? - ✔✔✔The public health approach and
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Continuum of Care
What is Public Health? - ✔✔✔It is what we, as a society, do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be
healthy.
Public Health Approach Key Characteristics - ✔✔✔Promotion and prevention (focus on wellness and preventing
problems)
Population based (focus on the population, not individual)
Risk and protective factors (factors that influence the problem)
Multiple contexts (contexts related to the ecological model by how one is influenced (family, community, school,
and culture)
Developmental perspective ( consider the developmental stage of life)
Planning process (deliberate, active and ongoing planning process)
5 Questions of the Public Health Approach - ✔✔✔What - What substance use and other behavioral problems need
to be addressed
Who - Who will the interventions focus on
When - When in the developmental stage is the intervention focusing on
Why - Why are these problems occurring? Risk and Protective Factors
, How - How do we do effective prevention?
The IOM Continuum of Care Breakdown - ✔✔✔Promotion - involves interventions (e.g. programs, practices, or
environmental strategies)
Prevention (3 types) - Universal (general public; community policies, education to physicians, social skills for
youth), Selective (subgroup identified as having a risk of developing SUD; prevention education for new immigrant
families, peer support groups), Indicated (high-risk individuals identified as having minimal signs; referral and
information for those who violate campus or community policies on alcohol and drug usage, screening and referral
for older adults admitted to ER with alcohol related injuries)
Treatment - interventions and standard forms of treatment
Maintenance - interventions focusing on long-term treatment to reduce relapse
Recovery - process of change where individuals improve their health and wellness
SAMHSA Eight Dimensions of Wellness - ✔✔✔occupational, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, emotional,
financial, environmental
Prevention History - ✔✔✔1950s - scare tactics through films and speakers
1960s - scare tactics, information about substance abuse
1970s - drug curricula based on factual information, curricula based on communication, decision-making, values
clarification, and self-esteem
1980s - Parent-formed organizations to combat drug-abuse, social skills curricula, refusal skill training
1990s - Community-based approaches to prevention, environmental approaches, media campaigns, culturally
sensitive programs
2000-2010 - evidence-based models, comprehensive programs, data-driven decision making
2010-present - evidence-based practices, strategic planning process, improved access to health insurance that
covers mental health and substance abuse services
Risk factors - ✔✔✔certain biological, psychological, family, community, or cultural characteristics that precede and
are associated with a higher likelihood of behavioral health problems
Protective factors - ✔✔✔characteristics at the individual, family, or community level that are associated with a
lower likelihood of problem outcomes
Risk and Protective Factor Domains - ✔✔✔Individual, family, community, and society
