Promising Practices

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Options/Opciones Project is to reduce or eliminate risky sexual and drug use behaviors of HIV-infected patients.

Impact: The Options/Opciones Project shows that a clinician-delivered HIV prevention intervention targeting HIV-infected patients can result in reductions in unprotected sex and that interventions of this kind should be integrated into routine HIV clinical care.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children

Goal: Florida started the drug court movement by creating the first treatment-based drug court in the nation in 1989. The drug court concept was developed in Dade County (Miami, Florida) stemming from a federal mandate to reduce the inmate population or suffer the loss of federal funding. The Supreme Court of Florida recognized the severity of the situation and directed Judge Herbert Klein to research the problem. Judge Klein determined that a large majority of criminal inmates had been incarcerated because of drug charges and were revolving back through the criminal justice system because of underlying problems of drug addiction. It was decided that the delivery of treatment services needed to be coupled with the criminal justice system and the need for strong judicial leadership and partnerships to bring treatment services and the criminal justice system together.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of PCIT is to improve the behavior of children suffering from conduct disorders by strengthening the parent-child relationship and teaching parenting and discipline skills.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce child behavior problems and delinquency and substance abuse among adolescents, to improve parenting knowledge and skills, and to strengthen the relationship between adolescent and parent.

Impact: Findings from studies show an association between Parenting Wisely participation and improvements in family problem solving, family roles, family involvement, parenting self-efficacy, parenting sense of competence, and decreased adolescent violent behavior.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Families

Goal: The goals of the program included helping unemployed, noncustodial parents (primarily fathers) to secure employment, pay child support, and participate more fully and responsibly as parents.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of this intervention was to involve pediatricians to help reduce rates of early childhood caries.

Impact: The multifaceted ECC intervention was associated with increased provider knowledge and counseling, and significantly attenuated incidence of ECC, showing that similar interventions could have the potential to make a significant public health impact on reducing ECC among young children.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Pathways to Housing, Inc. is to provide independent housing, treatment services for physical and mental health, and employment to mentally ill individuals who are chronically homeless.

Impact: Pathways to Housing has received numerous awards for its projects in New York City, Philadelphia, and D.C. In addition to achieving large effects in terms of housing outcomes, compared with standard care in the community, Housing First also improves community functioning and quality of life.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The Goal of this Promising Practice is to determine whether a tailored community health worker (CHW) intervention would improve post-hospital outcomes among low-SES patients.

Impact: This intervention would improve access to primary care and quality of discharge while controlling recurrent readmissions in a high-risk population. Health systems may leverage the CHW workforce to improve post-hospital outcomes by addressing behavioral and socioeconomic drivers of disease.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve communication between providers and patients about colorectal cancer screening.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: PAXIS Institute develops, implements, and supports tested and proven solution-focused strategies with real-world outcomes for children and the adults who care for them in partnership with communities to reduce historical disparities and improve lifetime outcomes to create population-level peace, productivity, health, and happiness.

The mission of the PAX Tools for Human Services program is to empower individuals and communities to create a more nurturing environment with universal access to research-based prevention science in order to improve the well-being and lifetime outcomes of people from all walks of life around the world.