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.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Colorectal Cancer Prevention & Control, Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions: Provider Reminder & Recall Systems (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer
Goal: The goal of incorporating multicomponent interventions for cancer screenings is to increase colorectal cancer screenings, colonoscopies, and FOTB in communities.
Impact: Multicomponent interventions that include strategies that reduce and address structural barriers increase colorectal cancer screening rates by the largest margins and evidence shows that these interventions are also cost-effective.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Adults
Goal: The goal of the programs is to increase vaccination coverage of patients through reminders to providers and other health care professionals.
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends provider reminder interventions based on strong evidence of effectiveness in improving vaccination coverage:
-In adults, adolescents, and children
-When used alone or with additional components
-Across a range of intervention characteristics (e.g., computerized or simple reminders, checklists or flowcharts)
-In a range of settings and populations
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the negative impacts of divorce and separation on children.
Impact: Children of parents in the program said they felt caught in the middle less often compared to those of non-participants, and reported less stress in general. Parents who took the course also reported more awareness of their children's feelings, and had better communication with their children.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families
Goal: Children's Village seeks to connect children with special needs and their families with supportive services.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens
Goal: The goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression is to treat depressive symptoms in adolescents.
Impact: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression showed more rapid treatment response than both systematic behavior family therapy and non-directive support therapy. CBT also showed a greater rate of decline in self-reported depression over time.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: The goal of Color Me Healthy is to promote and encourage physical activity and healthy eating among children ages four and five.
Impact: The program has had a positive impact on children's knowledge of and participation in physical activity. Similarly, it has had a positive impact on children's ability to recognize and their willingness to try fruits and vegetables. It has also increased children's fruit/vegetable snack consumption.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children
Goal: The goals of DTBY are to improve parents' self-esteem, enhance decision-making skills, increase communication between parents and children, teach effective stress management, and strengthen peer support.
Impact: Several studies have demonstrated increases in parental self-efficacy and self-esteem among DTBY parents. Also, the use of harsh punishment decreased and effective discipline and limit-setting increased. Children involved in DTBY programming had greater average increases in developmental level.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Rural
Goal: The goal of the interventions is to reduce the number of blacklegged ticks to ultimately reduce the incidence of Lyme disease.
Impact: The four-poster device was effective in decreasing erythema migrans (EM) rash incidence in an endemic area. The deer hunt did not have a significant effect on the incidence of EM rash, although the incidence did decrease.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the Diabetes-Based Science Education for Tribal Schools (DETS) curriculum is to slow or reverse the rising rate of type 2 diabetes in American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) youth through a pedagogy based in a combination of a science-based diabetes/health education curriculum and culturally relevant contexts.
Impact: Overall, the DETS curriculum shows that collaboratively-developed curriculums and education courses can have an effective impact across grade levels with students having significant knowledge gains, and can also serve as a supplement for other science and social science curriculums in schools.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders
Goal: The goal of Dialectical Behavior Therapy is to use a cognitive-behavioral treatment approach to treat patients with multiple disorders.
Impact: After 1 year of treatment, a smaller percentage of DBT participants reported suicide attempts compared with TBE patients. DBT also reduced Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) behavior over the course of 1-year treatment.