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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
Goal: The goal of CAST training is to deliver life-skills training to high-risk high school students in order to increase mood management skills, improve school performance, and decrease drug involvement.
Impact: CAST participants in several NIH-funded studies saw significant and sustained reduction of suicide risk behaviors, reduction of drug use, reduction in depression, increase in personal control, increase in problem-solving, and increase in family support.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Older Adults
Goal: To reduce death from heart disease among their members in Northern California.
Medical Legal Partnerships: Embedding Civil Legal Aid Services in Care for High-Utilizing Patients (Lancaster, PA)
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the pilot was to assess the impact on health care use of addressing patients’ civil legal problems – the social, financial, or environmental problems that require assistance from lawyers to remedy. The lawyer was embedded in the health care team and present during case management discussions to identify specific civil legal problems and to help the team better understand how to address them. Additionally, this partnership provided civil legal aid services to patients when needed in a community health care system.
Impact: This pilot shows a medical-legal partnership for the super-utilizers of healthcare can lead to efficiencies within the health care system, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable patients.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the quality of life for women diagnosed with cancer.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: BRI Care Consultation is an intervention for adults with a chronic physical or mental health condition or disability and a primary caregiver (family member or friend) who assists the adult with daily activities, tasks, and healthrelated discussions.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Adolescent Health: Person-to-Person Interventions to Improve Caregivers' Parenting Skills (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Families
Goal: To modify adolescents' risk and protective behaviors by improving their caregivers' parenting skills based on sufficient evidence of effectiveness in reducing adolescent risk behaviors.
Impact: Although the estimated effects varied substantially and were not statistically significant, risk behaviors decreased and youth participants reported increased refusal skills and self efficacy for avoiding risky behaviors in the future.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Breast Cancer Prevention & Control, Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions: Provider Reminder & Recall Systems (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
Goal: The goal of incorporating multicomponent interventions for cancer screenings is to increase breast cancer screenings in communities.
Impact: Multicomponent interventions that include strategies that reduce and address structural barriers increase cancer screening rates by the largest margins.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cancer Prevention & Control, Client-Oriented Screening Interventions: Reducing Out-of-Pocket Costs: Cervical Cancer (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Women
Goal: The goal of the interventions is to reduce client out-of-pocket costs to minimize or remove economic barriers that make it difficult for clients to access cancer screening services.
Impact: Consistently favorable results for interventions that reduce costs for breast cancer screening and several other preventive services suggest that such interventions are likely to be effective for increasing cervical cancer screening as well.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cancer Prevention & Control, Client-Oriented Screening Interventions: Reducing Out-of-Pocket Costs: Colorectal Cancer (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
Goal: The goal of the interventions is to reduce client out-of-pocket costs to minimize or remove economic barriers that make it difficult for clients to access cancer screening services.
Impact: Consistently favorable results for interventions that reduce costs for breast cancer screening and several other preventive services suggest that such interventions are likely to be effective for increasing colorectal cancer screening as well.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cancer Prevention & Control, Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions: Provider Assessment & Feedback (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
Goal: To promote screening of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers in community and healthcare settings.
Impact: Provider assessment and feedback can improve the delivery of recommended cancer screenings in relationship to other elements of the specific health care system.