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 Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families
Goal: The goal of the Keystone Forest Preserve is to preserve the land from being developed, protect its unique ecosystems, and serve as an outdoor space for visitors to enjoy and a beautiful setting for Highway 412.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Other Conditions
Goal: The goals of the KIP Program are to instill in the inmate community the knowledge and power to make healthy decisions and try to incorporate risk and harm reduction ideas into inmate lifestyles.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program is to identify and follow underserved adult residents with undiagnosed or untreated high blood pressure, cholesterol or glucose, provide education to encourage healthy lifestyle changes and encourage them to seek treatment – anyone without a primary care physician is referred to a participating FQHC.
Impact: Among those participants who were followed over time and were able to be reached by phone, there were significant increases in healthy food consumption as well as significant decreases in smoking, fat consumption, and fast food frequency.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce childhood obesity and diabetes by increasing access to nutritious food for children and families.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce medication-related problems among senior home health patients.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens
Goal: The goals of this program are to establish a single application for school-based youth prevention programs; provide a common language and approach for parent, community, and student health programs; and reinforce prevention messages from a variety of sources.
Impact: Students who received the Michigan Model curriculum had significantly better health outcomes in several areas: social and emotional health, interpersonal skills, aggressive behavior, safety attitudes and skills, physical activity skills, nutrition behavior, drug refusal skills, recent alcohol and tobacco use, and intentions to use alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children
Goal: The goal of the New Jersey Department of Health's voluntary fluoride mouth rinse program, "Save Our Smiles" is to improve the oral health status of high need/risk children residing in areas where the water is not optimally fluoridated.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Adults
Goal: The goal of the Oklahoma Billboard Control and Removal Program is to comply with the requirements of the Oklahoma Highway Beautification Act by removing non-permitted billboards and regulating the installation of new billboards.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of Parent Connext is to support parents in reducing and/or preventing toxic stress in the family and help children develop critical life skills and coping skills. Recent studies have found that up to 50% of health outcomes are attributable to social and economic factors and that lifetime costs associated with child maltreatment are comparable to other costly healthcare conditions such as stroke or type 2 diabetes. Moreover, 4 in 5 physicians report lacking confidence in their ability to meet patients’ social needs, which can impede their ability to provide high quality medical care. As a result, interventions that target parents’ social needs may have important implications for reducing healthcare costs and have the added benefit of enabling physicians to provide high-quality care to their patients.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: The Goal of this Promising Practice is to determine whether a tailored community health worker (CHW) intervention would improve post-hospital outcomes among low-SES patients.
Impact: This intervention would improve access to primary care and quality of discharge while controlling recurrent readmissions in a high-risk population. Health systems may leverage the CHW workforce to improve post-hospital outcomes by addressing behavioral and socioeconomic drivers of disease.