Strategies

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

135 Strategies
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Telemental health services

Provide mental health care services (e.g., psychotherapy or counseling) via telephone or videoconference
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Text message-based health interventions

Provide reminders, education, or self-management assistance for health conditions, especially chronic diseases, via text message
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Trauma-informed health care

Adopt universal trauma precautions and provide trauma-specific care to patients in health care organizations
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Unhealthy snack taxes

Increase the price of snack products high in sugar and fat by adding an excise or sales tax
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Urban agriculture

Support food-producing and income-earning activities in urban environments (e.g., edible landscapes, front yard or rooftop gardens, window farming, hydroponics, livestock, etc.)
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate
  • Civic and community resources

Value-based insurance design

Create financial incentives or remove financial disincentives to affect consumer choices and incentivize provision of cost efficient health care services
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Value-based purchasing (VBP)

Use the purchasing power of employers and groups of insured individuals to create incentives and disincentives for health care providers to deliver high quality, high value care
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Budgets

Walking school buses

Arrange active transportation with a fixed route, designated stops, and pick up times when children can walk to school with adult chaperones
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate

Water availability & promotion interventions

Make water readily available in various settings via regular placement of drinking fountains, water coolers, bottled water in vending machines, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

WIC & Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Programs

Support Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs, which provide WIC and Senior Nutrition Program participants with vouchers for fresh, unprepared, locally grown fruits and vegetables
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise