What does prevention really mean and why does it matter?

Written by Jose Gilbert, Head of Philanthropy at Gotcha4Life

Prevention saves lives. We’ve seen it time and again.

From cardiovascular disease to road fatalities, early and community wide action has led to measurable, lasting impact.

Public health campaigns targeting heart disease – combined with improved dietary guidelines, smoking cessation and early screening – drove a significant decline in cardiovascular deaths within a decade. Likewise, the introduction and enforcement of seatbelt laws in Australia saw an immediate and sustained reduction in road fatalities.

But when it comes to mental health, prevention is more complex. Outcomes can be harder to see, benefits take longer to emerge and success is often defined by the absence of crisis rather than a single breakthrough moment.

That’s why we welcome the Productivity Commission’s exploration of how to properly measure and value prevention in the care economy and across systems and sectors. It would unlock its full potential to improve lives and ease pressure on crisis services.

The challenge we face now is clear: how do we fully incorporate prevention into our mental health services?

We believe there are three key priorities:

Embed prevention across sectors through a national framework

Right now, prevention efforts are often fragmented, spread thinly across health, education, social services and justice without clear accountability. A cross-sector national framework for prevention enables communities, services, and funders to coordinate efforts, align goals, and embed prevention as a core approach – creating shared value and stronger outcomes.

Shift to long-term, multi-year funding models

Prevention takes time. Results may not show up within a 12 month funding cycle, but they deliver exponential benefits over decades. Short-term funding models make it difficult to plan and scale and for long-term change.

Transitioning to multi-year investment gives providers and communities the certainty needed to embed prevention deeply, build local capacity and rigorously measure impact over time.

Value and measure prevention outcomes beyond immediate cost savings

Prevention's success is often invisible, defined by crises avoided rather than interventions delivered. To drive real adoption, we need to broaden how we define and measure "value."

This means capturing the value of long-term social, economic and health benefits and using metrics such as improved community wellbeing, reduced demand on acute health and crisis services, increased school engagement and attendance, stronger workforce participation and enhanced social cohesion to measure true success and incorporating these broader benefits into budgeting and reporting.

At Gotcha4Life, we believe prevention means proactively building mental fitness – the ability to navigate life’s challenges, stay connected and seek help early.

Through programs in schools, workplaces, sporting clubs and communities, we help people develop three proven protective factors: emotional adaptability, social connection and help-seeking behaviours. This is prevention in action: addressing root causes early to reduce crisis later.

To meaningfully invest in prevention, we must reimagine it as a foundational pillar – critical to economic resilience, the long-term sustainability of our health, education and social systems, and the wellbeing of future generations. We must invest beyond short-term cycles and accurately value the cross-sector benefits it delivers.

With health and social care costs projected to rise sharply in coming decades, prevention is no longer optional – it’s the most responsible investment we can make.

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