The debate on primary prevention: Toward a synthesis.

CONCLUSION: The primary prevention model presented above provides a "larger theoretical structure" capable of including both sides of the debate. It encourages primary prevention efforts yet builds in the careful assessment, planning, research, and evaluation needed to prevent excesses.Primary prevention is an experiment. It is thezeitgeist in mental health, and it will have its day. It is a powerful metaphor spurred by the dream of eradicating mental illness from society. Primary prevention may prove to be an important turning point in the history of mental health. Or it may end up on the junk heap of "progressive ideas" which were either unsound or unworkable. Either way, primary prevention is an idea whose time has finally come.