5 Chapter 5: IOM Category

The following chapter sorts strategies by their Institution of Medicine (IOM) category. The Institution of Medicine categorizes prevention strategies into three main delivery methods: universal, selective, and indicated.

• Universal delivery, which can be further categorized into direct and indirect, is a delivery method by which the entire target population is reached (e.g. entire school). A universal direct strategy is designed to make direct contact with an identifiable target population that has not been separated based on individual risk. A universal indirect strategy is designed to change the environment around an identifiable population without making contact (e.g. policy change).
• Selective delivery is used to address a subset of the population that are at higher-than-average risk for substance misuse.
• Indicated delivery is intended to prevent substance misuse in high-risk individuals who are showing signs and problem behaviors that could result in them developing addiction. These strategies are not often used in primary prevention.

Clicking on the strategy will navigate you to its listing in Chapter 1.

Universal Direct

Selective

Indicated

Universal Indirect