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, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle
Goal: MHHM was rolled out with the following overall goal: to create a community wide culture that encourages and supports healthy lifestyles by promoting increased physical activity (10,000 steps/day goal), optimal nutrition, healthy public policy and access to resources and facilities that bolster the stated goal. Specific goals include:
- Increasing the number of people in Louisville Metro who engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least 5 days a week by 15%.
- Decreasing the percentage of overweight or obese people in Louisville Metro by 10%.
- Increasing from 22% to 38% the number of people in Louisville Metro who eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Past and future Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys will be used to measure baseline and follow-up indicators.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the Medical Nutrition Therapy program is to decrease perinatal complications in pregnant women with type 2 Diabetes in Mexico City.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program is to increase fruit and vegetable consumption behavior in participants of the Women, Infants, and Children program in Genessee County, Michigan.
Impact: Participants of the program increased their fruit and vegetable consumption and the program had a positive effect on participants attitudes toward consuming fruits and vegetables.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Families
Goal: The goal of MDFT is to reduce adolescent drug abuse and increase self-efficacy in the teen population.
Impact: Systematic reviews comparing the effective of adolescent drug use interventions across studies found that MDFT reduces substance use, delinquency, behavior problems, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The program has also been found to improve educational performance.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children
Goal: The ultimate goal of MST is to empower families to build a healthier environment through the mobilization of existing child, family, and community resources.
Impact: Compared to youth receiving usual-treatment services, those receiving MST were arrested about half as often in the post-treatment period. Recidivism rates were significantly less for MST-treated youth. Youth who received MST also had an average of 73 fewer days of incarceration.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Urban
Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.
The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families' material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.
Impact: The Nurse Family Partnership Program has shown to improve pregnancy outcomes, improve child health and development, and increase economic self-sufficiency.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women
Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.
The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families’ material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.
Impact: Evaluations of the program have shown that women who were visited by nurses had significantly better outcomes than those who did not in terms of measures such as maternal health, maternal life-course development, child health and safety, and adolescent measures of delinquency.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults
Goal: The goal of this nurse-led program is to improve secondary prevention among patients with coronary heart disease.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Families
Goal: Nurses for Newborns aims to provide a safety net for families at-risk and in-need of extra assistance, with programs serving teen moms, mothers with disabilities, infants that are sick, and other families in-need to prevent infant mortality, child abuse, and neglect.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens
Goal: The goals of the Open Meadow program are 1) to re-engage high risk youth so they will complete their education; and 2) to connect high risk youth to their community in a positive way.