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 / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The objective of the study was to characterize the population of older adults on waiting lists for home-delivered meals and compare their health and health-related needs to the population of older adults living in the community.
Impact: Between baseline and follow-up, respondents receiving daily-delivered meals were more likely to exhibit:
• Improvement in mental health (i.e., anxiety)
• Improvement in self-rated health
• Reductions in the rate of falls
• Improvement in feelings of isolation and loneliness
• Decreases in worry about being able to remain in home
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The Ambulatory Integration of the Medical and Social (AIMS) model aims to address social and environmental factors patients face that may prevent them from following their plan of care, thus impacting their health.
Impact: The AIMS model helps create better supported, less stressed, and better informed consumers and caregivers. There is also evidence to suggest that this model reduces ED usage and 30-day readmissions in participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Tobacco Use
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends community mobilization combined with additional interventions such as stronger local laws directed at retailers, active enforcement of retailer sales laws, and retailer education with reinforcement on the basis of sufficient evidence of effectiveness in reducing youth tobacco use and access to tobacco products from commercial sources.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Women
Goal: The goal of this program is to facilitate trauma recovery among women with histories of exposure to sexual and physical abuse.
Impact: Studies demonstrated that TREM participants showed a significant reduction in severity of problems related to substance use from baseline to 12-month follow-up relative to the comparison group. Reduced trauma symptoms were also significantly greater for the intervention group than for the comparison group at 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, the intervention group had significantly reduced symptoms of psychological problems 1 year after the intervention.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Older Adults
Goal: The goal of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program is to increase joint flexibility, range of motion, and muscle strength among individuals with arthritis.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends the use of ignition interlocks for people convicted of alcohol-impaired driving based on evidence that they reduce re-arrest rates while the interlocks are installed.
Public health benefits of ignition interlock interventions are currently limited by the small proportion of offenders who install interlocks in their vehicles. More widespread and sustained use of interlocks among this population could have a greater impact on alcohol-related crashes.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Families
Goal: 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.
Impact: 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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to increase knowledge of stroke, encourage self-monitoring, and maintain healthy lifestyle changes to prevent secondary stroke.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Urban
Goal: The goals of the Eat Well and Keep Moving program are to improve eating habits, increase physical activity, and reduce television viewing among upper elementary school students.