Strategies

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

97 Strategies
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Reproductive life plans

Establish plans consistent with personal values and current life circumstances that set goals related to having or not having children; goals often change over time
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Retail clinics

Establish clinics in retail stores that provide basic services for minor illnesses (e.g., sore throats or skin conditions) and procedures (e.g., immunizations, pregnancy testing, routine lab tests); also known as retail pharmacy, walk-in, or convenient care clinics
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Rural transportation services

Establish transportation services for areas with low population densities using publicly funded buses and vans on a set schedule, dial-a-ride transit, volunteer ridesharing, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Clinical care
  • Housing and transportation
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Budgets
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Sales to intoxicated persons (SIP) law enforcement

Increase enforcement of laws that prohibit alcoholic beverage service to intoxicated customers, usually with fines, imprisonment, or revocation of a license
Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

School fundraiser restrictions

Prohibit the sale of unhealthy foods such as sugar sweetened beverages, candy, and other non-nutritious snacks at school fundraisers, often as part of a broader nutrition policy
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

School-community liaisons

Provide students from public schools, from low income backgrounds, or who have a high risk of dropping out and their families with information about social services and health care supports; also called community resource or family and community liaisons
Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Education

Scrap programs for old vehicles

Provide incentives to trade in old cars or light duty trucks with low fuel efficiency and high emissions and buy new vehicles with higher efficiency and lower emissions; also called scrappage or vehicle early retirement programs
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Air, water and land
  • Climate

Seller & server minimum age

Require a minimum age for sellers in off-premise locations that sell alcohol and servers and bartenders in on-premise locations
Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Smoke-free policies for multi-unit housing

Implement private sector rules or public sector regulations that prohibit smoking in and around multi-unit housing
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Tobacco use

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Social host laws

Adopt laws that hold private property owners who provide alcohol to minors or obviously intoxicated individuals on their property liable if someone is killed or injured as a result
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Alcohol and drug use

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies