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.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: The goals of this promising practice were to identify the transportation-disadvantaged population that lacks nonemergency medical care because of low access to transportation; determine the medical conditions that this population experiences and describe other characteristics of these individuals, including geography; estimate the cost of providing the transportation necessary for this population to obtain medical transportation according to various transportation service needs and trip modes; estimate the healthcare costs and benefits that would result if these individuals obtained transportation to non-emergency medical care for key healthcare conditions prevalent for this population; and compare the relative costs (from transportation and routine healthcare) and benefits (such as improved quality of life and better managed care, leading to less emergency care) to determine the cost-effectiveness of providing transportation for selected conditions.
Impact: These results show that adding relatively small transportation costs do not make a disease-specific, otherwise cost-effective environment non-cost-effective. Providing increased access to non-emergency medical care does improve quality of life and saves money per patient.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban
Goal: The goals of the projects were to:
- Provide uninterrupted service;
- Develop a strategy to minimize or eliminate future wastewater rate increases resulting from higher power supply costs;
- Build self-sufficiency and local control over longterm energy supplies;
- Help improve electric generation for the benefit of the IEUA service area (e.g., municipal power Joint Power arrangements with the cities); and
- Assist the region and California in meeting its energy needs.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability
Goal: The overall purpose of the energy evaluation was to demonstrate how operational and process modifications could be made to lower the demand and energy costs for various facilities within STPUD. More specifically, the goal was to reduce electrical energy consumed at the plant and to reduce SPPC billings.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: Greenbelt Alliance's mission is to improve the lives in the San Francisco Bay Area by protecting the region's greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens
Goal: The HeadOn program is designed to promote well-known protective factors based on both the social-influence model of drug use and a generalized skills-training model.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: Healthy Love seeks to provide a safe, culturally tailored intervention for heterosexual black women to reduce their disproportionately high risk of transmitting and contracting HIV and other STDs. Healthy Love aims to encourage sexual abstinence, HIV testing, and receipt of test results; increase women's condom usage during vaginal sex with male partners; and reduce the number of women's sex partners and unprotected anal and vaginal sex with male partners. Healthy Love also seeks to improve HIV/STD knowledge, self-efficacy for using condoms, intentions to use condoms, and attitudes towards condoms.
Impact: Healthy Love increased participants' likelihood of using condoms, being tested for HIV, and receiving their test results. The intervention also reduced participants' self-described actions with male partners that can increase black women's risks for HIV infection.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Older Adults
Goal: The Pennsylvania Department of Aging offers this fall risk screening and prevention program to adults 50 years of age and older. The program is designed to raise awareness of falls, introduce steps on how to reduce falls, improve overall health, and provide referrals and resources.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban
Goal: The goals of the Holistic Health Recovery Program are to promote health and improve quality of life of injection drug users.
Impact: Implementation of the program resulted in a decrease in addition severity, a decrease in risk behavior, and significant improvement in behavioral skills and quality of life.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
Goal: HIPPY programs empower parents as primary educators of their children in the home and foster parent involvement in school and community life to maximize the chances of successful early school experiences.
Impact: Through 20 years of research, the HIPPY model has proven to be effective in improving school readiness, parent involvement in students' academic lives, school attendance, classroom behavior, and overall academic performance.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women
Goal: The goal of Insights is to increase condom use among young women at risk for HIV and other STDs.
Impact: Insights proves that tailored cognitive/behavioral minimal self-help interventions hold promise as HIV/STD prevention strategies for diverse populations of young at-risk women.