Software to Guide Your Prevention Programming: 

CSAP’s PreventionDSS 

By Jody K. Vilschick


Closing the Gap, Substance Abuse Prevention:What’s Working to Keep Our Youth Drug Free?


June/July 2001


Need guidance on how to make your 

substance abuse prevention pro 

gram work better? 

Try PreventionDSS Version 2.0 from the 

Federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). 

With 1,600 registered users already working on more than 550 

prevention projects, and a new 

version 2.0 released in 

May, the folks at the 

CSAP are delighted 

with their new 

computer software tool. 

PreventionDSS 

(DSS stands for Decision Support System) is a 

free, web-based tool that provides step-by-step guidance on 

how to apply what works in prevention to your program. 

“It’s useful to anyone creating a prevention program because it guides you 

through a thinking process that considers 

needs assessment, demographic make-up, on 

through to implementation and evaluation,” 

says Terri Singer, manager of the Central Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies, one of several projects funded by 

CSAP. Singer adds that organizations serving minorities and involved in minority 

health issues will find it useful because “there 

are sections that allow you to specify the populations that will be served by the program 

you are creating.” Then, the program provides specific resources and strategies geared 

for the group you’ve identified. 

Although initially designed to be used 

by prevention service professionals, community coalitions, graduate course instructors, 

and students involved in prevention science, 

“its tools are flexible enough to be useful for 

many other types of projects in other fields,” 

says Jon Rolf, Ph.D., senior health advisor at 

CSAP’s Prevention Application and Education Branch. Extensive online tutorials, an 

online library that provides relevant documents and resources and online technical 

assistance are available to guide the user. 

“PreventionDSS has been described as a real breakthrough for 

the dissemination and application of science-based 

prevention programs 

and relations,” Rolf 

says. Before 

Prevention 

DSS, “there 

were books, monographs, training manuals and videos, and a few 

web-based resources with 

static documents about the what, 

how, and why.” 

PreventionDSS is more than an information suite, according to CSAP. It contains interactive tools that can be tailored to 

meet the needs of a specific project. As information is collected and used, the different 

modules of the decision support system can 

“learn” what the project needs. If information is entered during a needs assessment session indicating that the project is a schoolbased prevention project for children ages 6 

to 12, then information relevant to elementary school-based prevention activities will 

be presented to the user later, during the program selection stage. 

And why should community-based organizations use PreventionDSS? “Because,” 

says Rolf, “it helps them do many kinds of 

difficult prevention work easier, faster, and 

better.” 

For more information, go to http:// 

www.preventiondss.org , or contact Dr. Jon Rolf, 

CSAP at (301) 443-0380.

Office of Minority Health Resource Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services