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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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Touchpoints (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: To strengthen families of young children and the systems of care that surround them so that all children will be successful early learners and have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their cultural, socioeconomic, physical, psychological, emotional health, or environmental challenges.

Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS) (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults

Goal: The goal of TIPS is to train alcohol providers to recognize and prevent over consumption of alcohol.

Transitional Respite Care for the Homeless Program (Spokane, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Women, Men

Goal: The respite program's goal is to stop the revolving door of emergency department treatment by providing a supervised facility with a level of care from an on-site nurse similar to what a patient might receive from an attentive family member.

Impact: The program has been able to provide better care for a vulnerable population and reduce overall cost of care by lowering the number of ambulance calls, emergency department visits, and inpatient stays.

Transportation Solutions for Caregivers (TSC) (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Older Adults

Goal: The purpose of Transportation Solutions for Caregivers: A Solutions Package for Volunteer Transportation Programs, is to provide some guidance and basic information to existing volunteer programs as well as those planning to start new ones. Through such programs, Easter Seals aspires to help communities meet the transportation needs and preference of older adults and their caregivers who reside therein and maintain a mobile older population.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Pittsburgh, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens

Goal: The goals of the center are to alleviate serious symptoms and promote healthy coping responses in traumatized children and their families.

Triple Play

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens

Goal: To improve members' physical health, increase their knowledge about healthy lifestyles, and improve their self-esteem and behavior.

Impact: Triple Play is currently available to some 4,000 Boys & Girls Clubs serving over 4.2 million youth. Since the program’s launch in 2005, Clubs across the country have seen encouraging lifestyle changes in their members.

Trooper Island (Kentucky)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of Trooper Island Camp is to support the development of children's self image, including physical, mental, and spiritual growth.

Try This (New York, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the Try This: Best Practices in Care for Older Adults series of assessment tools is to provide knowledge of best practices in the care of older adults that is:

- easily accessible
- easily understood
- easily implemented, and
- to encourage the use of these best practices by all direct care nurses

Unused Medications Program (Kansas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The Unused Medications Repository, administered by Community Health Center of Southeast
Kansas, provides donated medications free of charge to eligible clinics in Kansas.

Impact: Over $20 million worth of prescription medications have been donated to low-income and uninsured Kansans.

Urban Brownfields Program: Rehabilitating Toxic Industrial Land, New Jersey, USA (Trenton, NJ)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: Isles, Inc., is a nationally recognized nonprofit community development and environmental organization with the mission to foster more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities. Through their Urban Brownfields program, Isles works to create a deeper understanding of the health and environmental conditions in Trenton.

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.