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Promising Practices

The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.

The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.

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Coping and Support Training (CAST) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of CAST training is to deliver life-skills training to high-risk high school students in order to increase mood management skills, improve school performance, and decrease drug involvement.

Impact: CAST participants in several NIH-funded studies saw significant and sustained reduction of suicide risk behaviors, reduction of drug use, reduction in depression, increase in personal control, increase in problem-solving, and increase in family support.

Health Care for the Homeless (Manchester, NH)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Health Care for the Homeless program is to provide health care for individuals and families who are currently struggling with homelessness.

Maryland WIC 5-A-Day (MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Women, Families

Goal: To increase daily fruits and vegetables servings by half in women served by WIC participants with the long term goal of reducing risk of cancer.

Impact: The Maryland WIC 5-A-Day Program shows that while multi-faceted community based interventions can effectively promote and sustain dietary change among low-income populations in order to reduce the risk of cancer, many obstacles remain in implementing such programs.

Partnering with Community Health Centers to Prevent Early Childhood Carries (ECC) (Boston, MA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of this intervention was to involve pediatricians to help reduce rates of early childhood caries.

Impact: The multifaceted ECC intervention was associated with increased provider knowledge and counseling, and significantly attenuated incidence of ECC, showing that similar interventions could have the potential to make a significant public health impact on reducing ECC among young children.

Tailored Caregiver Assessment and Referral (TCARE)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: TCARE supports Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) by strengthening agencies' abilities to support family caregivers through its Evidence-Based software and protocol.

The Arthritis Self-Management Program (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The Arthritis Self-Management Program is a group workshop that educates individuals with rheumatic diseases on techniques to help them manage their disease and live more active lives.

Water for Health in Secondary Schools (England)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Teens, Families

Goal: In order to promote drinking water for general health, the goal of the program is to improve access to fresh drinking water for students in select schools in England.

Advancing Diabetes Self Management (Connecticut)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Advancing Diabetes Self Management program at the Community Health Center was to improve the health outcomes of people with type 2 diabetes.

Impact: The diabetes self-management intervention showed patient improvements in glycemic control, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol. The team was able to develop and adapt the program to meet the unique needs of the population to create an effective intervention.

California Childcare Healthline (San Francisco Bay Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goals of this program are to promote and maintain the broadest understanding of health and wellness in early childhood settings and to create linkages and promote collaboration between health and safety professionals and child care professionals.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Adolescent Health: Person-to-Person Interventions to Improve Caregivers' Parenting Skills (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Families

Goal: To modify adolescents' risk and protective behaviors by improving their caregivers' parenting skills based on sufficient evidence of effectiveness in reducing adolescent risk behaviors.

Impact: Although the estimated effects varied substantially and were not statistically significant, risk behaviors decreased and youth participants reported increased refusal skills and self efficacy for avoiding risky behaviors in the future.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.
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