VIP-MHP measures connectedness through risk or protective factors that are common across multiple outcomes like substance abuse and violence and injury prevention. Those factors may include:
- Connecting youth with trusted adults.
- Neighborhood support and cohesion.
- Neighborhood safety, free from violence.
- Coordination of resources and services among community agencies.
- Social isolation/lack of social support.
- Family conflict.
- Associating with pro-social peers.
- Connection/commitment to school.
- Low educational achievement.
- Walkability.
- Livability.
Upstream Prevention:
By working toward connectedness as a shared priority, the following programs leverage resources to address upstream risk and protective factors, and prevent multiple forms of violence and injury at once. While the VIP-MHP Branch primarily works at the societal and community/organizational levels, the branch also collaborates with partners working at the individual and interpersonal levels of the model.
VIP-MHP Programs that Prioritize Connectedness:
- Office of Suicide Prevention
- Child Fatality Prevention System
- Retail Marijuana Education and Prevention
- Communities That Care
- Sexual Violence Prevention
- Motor Vehicle Injury and Fatality Prevention
- Excessive Alcohol Use Epidemiology and Prevention
- Essentials for Childhood
- Opioid Overdose Prevention