Developing a clear problem statement will help you focus on where to build capacity and how to measure outcomes and plan for sustainability. Interventions without a clearly articulated problem statement may lose steam over time, or not know whether they have made a difference. Communities should use their data about consumption, consequences, readiness, and resources to frame their problem statement in specific terms.
A good problem statement will meet each of the following criteria:
- Identify one issue or problem at a time
- Avoid blame
- Example: “Young people do not have enough positive activities” is better than “The kids here have nothing to do and are troublemakers”
- Avoid naming specific solutions
- Example: “Young people in our neighborhood are getting into trouble during after-school hours” is better than “We don’t have a youth center”
- Identify outcomes that are specific enough to be measurable
- Reflect community concerns as heard during the assessment process
When you develop your problem statement, be sure to describe what actually exists that is problematic, rather than what is lacking. Defining a problem simply as a “lack” of something will narrow your planning focus and direct energy and resources to strategies that are not likely to be sufficient on their own, while other important factors are missed.
- Example: “Hospital staff lack training on how to address opioid overdoses”
This statement assumes that addressing this lack by offering training alone will solve the problem. In reality, there may be many factors—such as lack of awareness among prescribing providers regarding opioid overdose risk factors, and inadequate availability of post-overdose care—that also contribute to the problem.
- Better examples:
- Too many local high school students (2.6 percent) are currently using opiate-based prescription drugs that were not prescribed for them.
- Too many young adults (ages 18–25) in our town have died from an opioid overdose (20 over the past three years).
These problem statements are clear and specific, identifying just one issue at a time.
Keeping the focus on the priority behaviors, consequences, and/or underlying intervening variables at this stage in the planning process will help you select a comprehensive array of strategies that will be more effective in addressing the problems you have identified.
Some communities find that they need to develop more than one problem statement. For example, you may need to develop a problem statement that addresses an issue related to consumption (use) and one that addresses an issue related to consequences (e.g., overdoses, deaths).