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 / Alternative Medicine, Rural
Goal: The goal of GUAMAP is to train rural community health workers to provide remote settlements in northern Guatemala with access to sustainable, low-cost, low-technology, effective health care through the use of acupuncture.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Older Adults
Goal: To reduce death from heart disease among their members in Northern California.
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 / Physical Activity, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural
Goal: The goal of POWER is to promote weight loss and glycemic control among individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes living in rural communities.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the quality of life of residents of Northeast Florida by providing programs and services which raise the health, education and economic standards of citizens living at the lowest social and economic levels.
The Character Effect: A Universal Social-Emotional Learning Program for Elementary School Students (Greater Cincinnati Area (SW OH, Northern KY))
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of The Character Effect is to foster the development of students’ social-emotional skills, improving their behavior and readiness to learn in the classroom.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families
Goal: Triple P aims to prevent maltreatment and behavioral, emotional and developmental problems in children by strenghtening the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents.
Impact: The program found a 25-35% reduction in child maltreatment, child maltreatment related hospitalizations and injuries, and foster home placements of children for young children at two-year followup of the program.
Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Music, Older Adults
Goal: The Young at Heart Project aims to provide the therapeutic benefits of music and entertainment for senior citizens in convalescent and residential care facilities throughout Central and Northern California.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Urban
Goal: Access to Care aims to meet primary health care needs of low-income uninsured individuals.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: AccessHealth Spartanburg's mission is to improve access to healthcare for the uninsured of Spartanburg County, SC.
Impact: AHS reduced inappropriate emergency room use and inpatient caseloads while increasing access to healthcare services for its clients in Spartanburg County. Furthermore, the organization reported a $17 to $1 ROI.