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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.

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Medicaid Savings Resulted When Community Health Workers Matched Those With Needs To Home And Community Care (Arkansas)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce costs by using specially trained community health workers to help connect people with unmet long-term needs and/or those at risk of entering nursing homes to Medicaid home and community-based services.

Impact: Similar interventions may help other localities achieve cost-saving and equitable access to publicly funded long-term care options other than institutional care.

Mental Health: Targeted School-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Programs to Reduce Depression and Anxiety Symptoms

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends targeted school-based cognitive behavioral therapy programs to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms among school-aged children and adolescents who are assessed to be at increased risk for these conditions.

Mental Health: Universal School-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Programs to Reduce Depression and Anxiety Symptoms

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends universal school-based cognitive behavioral therapy programs to prevent or reduce depression and anxiety symptoms among school-aged children and adolescents.
The CPSTF also recommends Targeted School-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Programs to Reduce Depression and Anxiety Symptoms for students who are assessed to be at increased risk for these conditions, and group and individual CBT to reduce psychological harm from traumatic events among children and adolescents.

Project VIVA (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Project VIVA is to rapidly immunize hard-to-reach urban populations through a community-public health partnership.

Protocol for the Isolation and Quarantine of Communicable Disease (Rockland County, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The main objective of the Protocol is to provide a medicolegal framework for the protection of public health and safety in the face of emerging threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents with due regard to a citizen's right to due process.

Sacramento Job Corps Center (Sacramento, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: As a national, primarily residential training program, Job Corps' mission is to attract eligible young adults, teach them the skills they need to become employable and independent, and place them in meaningful jobs or further education.

Safe STEPS (Safe and Successful Transition of Elderly Patients Study) Intervention Program (PA, MD, NC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the program is to ensure effective discharge of patients from the hospital back to their homes, and to reduce 30-day hospital readmission.

Safer Sex (Boston, MA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Safer Sex project is to increase condom use, prevent recurrent STDs, and eliminate or reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescent females that have been diagnosed with an STD.

Impact: The Safer Sex project shows that individualized safer sex interventions may improve condom use and decrease the number of partners among adolescent girls who have had an STD.

School Wellness Council Project (New York City )

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The mission of the New York City Department of Education wellness policy is to reduce sedentary lifestyle and to promote nutritious eating among children.

Senior Corps (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to match seniors with volunteer opportunities.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. 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.
  2. 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:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
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