ABSTRACT
Primary prevention is something like the Holy Grail for the helping professions, that is, something that will grant the wishes of its possessor (in one of the many interpretations of that term). Theoretically, all helping professionals should wish that all people have good health and happiness in a peaceful world, and not have significant personal or social problems. (Whether people need continual challenges to keep them sharp and moving may be another matter.) Another way of saying this is that helping professionals would prefer that people can achieve their desired goals on their own (maybe with a little help from their friends, but whether this also includes a governmental bureaucracy providing health care, or industries making profits from medicating people, is still another matter). In this ideal world, there would be no war, poverty, physical or mental illness, ignorance, or discrimination. There would be no abuse or neglect, no vehicle crashes or other kinds of injuries, no aggressive behavior, no bullying, no criminal behavior, no divorce, no homelessness, no loneliness, no malnutrition or obesity, no unwanted pregnancy, no school dropouts, no substance abuse, to mention only a few of the hundreds of topics on prevention listed in the Encyclopedia of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion, Second Edition (Gullotta & Bloom, 2014).
