Strategies

What Works for Health includes evidence-informed strategies to create communities where everyone can thrive.

24 Strategies
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Drug courts

Use specialized courts to offer criminal offenders with drug dependency problems an alternative to adjudication or incarceration

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Alcohol and Drug Use

Enhanced seat belt enforcement programs

Add publicity and other strategies (e.g., supplemental patrols, increased officers, etc.) to efforts to enforce existing seat belt laws

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Firearm licensing laws

Require a potential purchaser to obtain a permit or license before purchasing a firearm

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Focused deterrence strategies

Target a particular crime through law enforcement and community agency cooperation and coordination of various deterrents and social services; also called pulling levers policing

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Hot spot policing

Focus police resources and enforcement on high-activity crime locations within a community (e.g., street blocks and buildings) using policing tactics such as increasing enforcement time, problem-oriented policing, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Integrated long-term care for community-dwelling frail elders

Support a collaborative approach by a multidisciplinary team of professionals working to meet the full range of long-term care (LTC) needs for frail elderly patients living in community settings

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Medical homes

Provide continuous, comprehensive, whole person primary care that uses a coordinated team of medical providers across the health care system

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care
  • Access to Care

Neighborhood watch

Support the efforts of neighborhood residents to work together in preventing crime by reporting suspicious or potentially criminal behavior to local law enforcement

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Primary seat belt enforcement laws

Allow law enforcement officials to stop drivers solely for failing to use a seat belt

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Restorative justice in the criminal justice system

Use victim-offender dialogue to address the harm caused by a crime and victims’ needs; can take place pre-arrest or post sentence via sharing circles, victim-offender mediation, or face-to-face conferences

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety