Relapse prevention: implications for health promotion professionals.

Health promotion and education efforts often are designed to promote behavior changes among clients, students, or participants. The primary emphasis of health promotion has been the initial behavior change process, with little attention directed to follow-up or after-care. The relapse prevention model (RP) presents a strategy to enhance the likelihood of maintaining a behavior change using methods clearly rooted in social learning theory. This article provides an overview of the RP model and examples of the implication of RP for health promotion and education programs.