Inventory of Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) for Healthy Start Programs

Evidence-based practices include actions, activities, strategies, or approaches that improve the health of women, before, during, and after pregnancy in order to improve birth outcomes and give infants up to age two years a healthy start. Also included in the collection are informational materials and tools that make it easier to implement evidence-based practices. To search by title, use the main search box located at the top of this page.


NIDA Quick Screen

The NIDA Quick Screen is a validated instrument designed to assist providers in screening adults for substance use. The screen simply inquires whether a participant has used drugs (mood-altering, illegal, or prescription for nonmedical reasons), alcohol, or tobacco products within the past year and how often these substances have been used. The NIDA website also provides guidelines for brief intervention and/or treatment referral for patients who may have or be at risk of developing a substance use disorder.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Risk Assessment Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

4Ps Plus©

4Ps Plus© is the first validated instrument that has been developed to screen for alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use; depression; and domestic violence, specifically in pregnant women. In addition, brief intervention strategies, grounded in motivational interviewing techniques, are integrated into the screening process. “I am concerned…” is an interactive, multisensory psychoeducational approach that takes about five minutes and is administered to all women who are found through the screening process to be using alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Depression Intimate Partner Violence Prenatal Care and Education Risk Assessment Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence Perinatal Depression Screening Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.

ASSIST – Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test

The ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test) is an 8-item questionnaire designed to be administered by a health worker to a client using paper and pencil, and takes about 5-10 minutes to administer. The ASSIST provides information about the substances people have ever used in their lifetime; those used in the past three months; problems related to substance use; risk of current or future harm; dependence; and injecting drug use. The ASSIST was designed to be culturally neutral and usable across a variety of cultures.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Promote Quality

Benchmarks:

Smoking Abstinence

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.