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 / Alcohol & Drug Use, Women, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Baltimore Needle Exchange Program is to reduce HIV, hepatitis, and other infections by reducing the use of unclean needles and to help individuals overcome substance abuse by connecting them to harm reduction services and drug treatment programs. The experimental case manager intervention program at the Baltimore NEP looked to increase the percentage of intravenous drug users who enrolled in city sponsored substance abuse programs following referral at the Baltimore NEP sites.
Impact: The intervention program through Baltimore NEP was effective in increasing entry of intravenous drug users into drug drug treatment programs and highlights the need for more accessible treatment programs and harm-reduction services, such as mobile treatment facilities.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the study was to prevent STDs in high-risk minority women through three culture-specific small group education and counseling sessions, delivered over time.
Impact: Reinfection rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were significantly lower at each follow-up among participants in the small-group counseling sessions than in the control group. Integration of behavior-change theory with extensive qualitative data collected in target communities enabled the study to create culturally meaningful strategies to promote the recognition of risk and to stimulate motivation to effect personal change.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women
Goal: The goal of the BetterU intervention is to increase knowledge of heart disease, increase physical activity, and improve nutrition among women aged 25 years and older.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Women
Goal: The Body Project is a dissonance intervention designed to help women in high school and college resist societal and cultural pressures to conform to an idealized notion of what it means to be 'thin' and to help increase body acceptance. A reduction in thin-ideal internalization should result in reduced use of unhealthy weight-control behaviors, decreased eating disorder symptoms, and overall increase in mood and well-being.
Impact: The Body Project program has yielded numerous significant benefits at posttest and 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years after program implementation. These include significant reductions in body dissatisfaction, bulimic symptoms and psychosocial impairment compared to control group participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Adults, Women, Families
Goal: To improve the health and well-being of Kansans by working collaboratively to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.
Impact: Investing in nursing employee support services has proven to produce a 3 to 1 ROI through greater employee retention, increased productivity, lower health care costs and decreased sick days.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Behavioral and Social: Social Support Interventions in Community Settings (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cancer Prevention & Control, Client-Oriented Screening Interventions: Client Reminders (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Women, Older Adults
Goal: The goal of the Client Reminders is to increase screening for breast cancers.
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends the use of client reminders to increase screening for breast cancers on the basis of strong evidence of effectiveness.