The Family Centre in Bermuda believes prevention is the primary tool in countering Bermuda?s social problems and because of this is restructuring its operation and key players in order to have a greater impact on the gaps in critical prevention and intervention services Island-wide.

The Family Centre executive director, Martha Dismont, said prevention would always be more effective and economically it was more cost effective.

?Because it breaks a cycle of ongoing need and destruction within families and communities which multiplies with each generation,? she said.

Ms. Dismont was responding to Attorney General Larry Mussenden?s call for pregnant drug addicts to be locked up to protect their unborn children from being ravaged by narcotics.

She said The Family Centre believed in prevention because it was also more effective socially as every hurt and desperate person would impact hundreds of others in their lifetime.

Ms. Dismont said the organisation recognised the need for greater preventative services on the Island and to meet a higher demand for its services, it was restructuring its operations.

?We will be able to work with more families in crisis, increase our involvement in the ?Communities That Care? youth development project and dedicate more of our expertise to working with other professional service providers on raising the standards of prevention-based services Island-wide,? she said.

The Family Centre has been offering a research-based approach of intensive intervention to families in crisis for the last seven years which services both primary and middle school-aged children and their families.

?We?ve now decided to focus our unique therapeutic programme on primary school-aged children and their families, as research has shown that intervening earlier with at-risk children by designing a unique and comprehensive plan for their family, is the most effective approach to breaking the cycle of crisis,? she said.

Ms Dismont said The Family Centre believed its programme would not only be more effective, but that they would be able to service a greater number of families.

?In the ?Caring For Families? programme, as it?s now called, each family is assigned a psychologist and a family support specialist who work together to stabilise and strengthen families in all areas of their lives,? she said.

Because of these changes, she said, the organisation anticipated helping more than 100 families in Bermuda this year.

?We?ve also increased our outreach in the community through greater involvement in the ?Communities That Care? project, an initiative that works with individual Parishes to improve quality of life, especially for the youth,? she said.

With three Parishes now involved, The Family Centre has dedicated a key member of staff to work on the project.

?It follows a model which has been very effective in other communities around the world,? Romel Woolridge, the project?s coordinator for The Family Centre said.

?It helps to bring neighbourhoods together and assists them in identifying their biggest social challenges and best opportunities for building a better future,? she said.

Ms Woolridge added that it also addressed risk factors such as the availability of drugs and peer pressure towards problem behaviours and hoped to enhance protective factors like providing young people with the chance to develop skills and bond within the community.

The Family Centre has also taken a leadership role in coordinating quality prevention services through the Bermuda Prevention Network.

Project coordinator Peter Carey said the Bermuda Prevention Network would offer prevention service provider access to increased technical support and co-ordination.

?The public will see an improved network of prevention based services that are easier to access,? he said.