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.

Submit a Promising Practice

Children in Between

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.

CHOPPS: Preventing childhood obesity by reducing consumption of carbonated drinks (United Kingdon)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of CHOPPS is to prevent childhood obesity by reducing the consumption of carbonated drinks among adolescents aged 7-11 through the implementation of an educational program.

Community Aging in Place - Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: CAPABLE is a 5-month structured home visit program delivered by an occupational therapist (OT), a registered nurse (RN), and a handyman to improve daily function in older adults and to lower the monthly average Medicaid expenditure and likelihood of costly healthcare services.

Impact: This study demonstrates that home visit programs can improve the daily quality of life in aging adults. Additionally, they can lead to a reduction in Medicaid expenditures via lower inpatient costs and lower long-term care costs.

Community of Civano (Tuscon, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: The overall mission of the Civano Community is:
- To create a sense of place that fosters community and connects people to one another and their natural environments
- To tread lighter on the land through innovative design, and
- To introduce sustainable construction materials and new technologies to advance the quality of life.

Specific performance targets include:
- Reduce energy consumption by 75%
- Reduce potable water consumption by 65%
- Reduce landfill-destined solid waste by 90%
- Reduce internal vehicle trip miles by 40%, and
- Create one community job for every 2 residences.

Community-Based Secondary Stroke Prevention (Hong Kong, China)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase knowledge of stroke, encourage self-monitoring, and maintain healthy lifestyle changes to prevent secondary stroke.

Cool Kids (Australia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: To teach children and parents how to manage anxiety disorders.

Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) is to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and reduce obesity in preschool, elementary, and middle school aged children.

Impact: CATCH is successful in improving participants' diet and physical activity, and the results lasted three years after participation.

Cross-Sector Collaboration for Vulnerable Populations Reduces Utilization and Strengthens Community Partnerships

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The objective of this article is to describe Project Restoration's approach to cross-sector collaboration with a shared population of high utilizing community members, describe the process and outcomes of the collaboration, provide strategies to mitigate challenges that arise during collaboration and offer insights to inform similar initiatives in communities nationwide.

Impact: Hospitals across the region are assessing ways to establish a centralized infrastructure to collaboratively address the complexities of individual cases, as well as a regional council to explore process improvements to enhance the lives of vulnerable populations.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

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.

Dramatic Health Education Project: STDs/HIV (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: The Coterie exists to provide professional classic and contemporary theater, which challenges the audience and artist alike, and to provide educational, dramatic outreach programs in the community. The Coterie seeks to open lines of communication between races, sexes and generations. The objectives of DHEP are to improve knowledge regarding HIV and STDs and reduce the intentions of teenagers to practice high-risk behavior. DHEP also continues to refine the culturally-specific dramatic workshops and ensure story lines are relevant to teenagers.

Impact: After watching this program, over 75% of students report that they would be less likely to practice high-risk sexual behavior.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

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.
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:

The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
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:

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.
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.
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.