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 / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Families
The goal of this program is to provide information about mood disorders to parents, equip parents with skills they need to communicate this information to their children, and open dialogue in families about the effects of parental depression.
Parents in the program scored better in their reports of child-related behavior and attitude changes of parental illness than parents who received a group-format presentation. Children in the program scored higher on measures of improved understanding of parental mood disorder than children who received a group-format lecture.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Families
The goal of this program is to improve the health of all its community members, while providing the same quality of service paid for by privately insured patients.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens
The goal of Cook Like a Chef is to teach children aged 11-13 about healthy cooking and eating habits.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
The goal of this study was to reduce pediatric asthma-related symptoms by installing central heating in homes.
Central heating successfully improves home heating, dampness, and energy efficiency. Through home modifications, asthma-related symptoms (nocturnal cough and days lost from school) can be reduced among children.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children
The goals of DTBY are to improve parents' self-esteem, enhance decision-making skills, increase communication between parents and children, teach effective stress management, and strengthen peer support.
Several studies have demonstrated increases in parental self-efficacy and self-esteem among DTBY parents. Also, the use of harsh punishment decreased and effective discipline and limit-setting increased. Children involved in DTBY programming had greater average increases in developmental level.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults
The goal of "Flu in 15" is to increase the acceptance of the seasonal flu vaccine among healthcare workers.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Women, Men
The goal of Healthy Relationships is to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by people who know they are HIV-positive by reducing the frequency with which they have unprotected sex.
Healthy Relationships seeks to develop decision making and problem making skills to reduce the risk and transmission of HIV through behavioral intervention. An intervention study resulted in significantly less unprotected intercourse and greater condom use with lower estimated HIV rates post-intervention.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women
The initiative's primary purpose was to reduce infant mortality by 50 percent and generally improve maternal and infant health in at-risk communities.
20% of the Healthy Start program sites had significantly lower rates of low-birth-weight babies than their comparisons. 20% of the sites also had significantly lower rates of very-low-birth-weight babies than their comparisons. Four of the sites had significantly lower pre-term birth rates.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
HIPPY programs empower parents as primary educators of their children in the home and foster parent involvement in school and community life to maximize the chances of successful early school experiences.
Through 20 years of research, the HIPPY model has proven to be effective in improving school readiness, parent involvement in students' academic lives, school attendance, classroom behavior, and overall academic performance.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Urban
The goal of this intervention is to promote catch-up immunizations for children who are behind the recommended immunization schedule.
Home vaccination for children behind in their immunization schedule is an effective and relatively cheap method of completing recommended vaccinations, and can be particularly beneficial for disadvantaged families.