Prevention and Consultation

"Prevention and Consultation" relates prevention and consultation in the helping professions. With the coming together of the resurgences of prevention, ecological principles, multicultural and social justice issues in the literature in the helping professions, this book is timely with its focus on how consultation can promote systems and individual change with multicultural competence in ways that empower all stakeholders. The book first provides a brief overview of consultation, its characteristics, the skill sets required of consultants, the roles consultants take on, consultation models, and the research base for consultation. Once these essential underpinnings of consultation are detailed, the author provides an analysis of the relationship between prevention and consultation and a detailed example of how prevention and consultation can work together in enhancing mental health programs in schools. The point is made that although consultation had preventive concepts from its beginnings, there has been limited development of its preventive potential. The author then provides selected examples of prevention and consultation in action in a variety of circumstances within a variety of settings so that its scope and breadth are adequately described. The text then provides two detailed, illustrative examples of bullying prevention in the workplace and in the schools. Rather than simply presenting a case study for each example, the author reviews related research in bullying prevention in both the workplace and schools and then provides a detailed case study for each. These examples will assist the reader in developing a personal model of consultation that includes a strong preventive focus. The author concludes with a discussion of both the barriers to and the enhancements for using prevention and consultation in applied settings. The reader will receive guidance for ensuring that preventive elements are examined at the initiation of each consultation relationship. The main features of this text include the following: a review of the relationship between prevention and consultation; two detailed, parallel case studies in preventive consultation, one community based and other school based; a succinct overview of consultation and its characteristics; and recommendations for increasing the use of preventive consultation.