Digging Deeper brings EHF staff and trusted partners together to analyze the research topics and health trends that are central to EHF’s vision for a healthier Texas.
EHF’s Journey to Learn About and Pilot Positive Deviance Studies
A promising approach to uncover uncommon behaviors and practices in addressing food insecurity
Reflections on Positive Deviance: Sit a Spell
Professors in the School of Social Work at Stephen F. Austin University used the Positive Deviance approach to learn what practices set social service providers whose clients achieved unexpected success apart from the typical provider.
Lessons Learned: Greater Houston Area – Accountable Health Communities APM Planning Project
The Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model was a 5-year Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center project (running May 2017 to April 2022) that tested whether systematically identifying and addressing the health-related social needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries’ has an impact on healthcare utilization.
Rooted in Community: A Journey to Transform our Food System with Sustainable Food Center
The Sustainable Food Center took a team approach to applying it to their work—pulling in staff from community engagement, policy, food access, and evaluation. Their resulting report provides a comprehensive look at the practical and emotional choices and navigation points that people experience in meeting basic food needs.
Learning with Communities as they Discover Solutions for Nutrition Security
Aetna and EHF joined forces to explore food security using the Positive Deviance Approach, which uses solution discovery to address complex social challenges. Instead of asking, “Where is food insecurity the worst and how do we fix it?”, solution discovery asks, “Are there people who consistently have healthy food even though they’re living in the same circumstances where others do not?”
Finer Points and Nuances of The Positive Deviance Approach
The foundation of the Positive Deviance approach is the belief that in every community, organization, or social system, there exist individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and practices have enabled them to succeed (relative to their peers) while facing the highest odds and with no extra resources. These individuals deviate from the norm (hence “deviance”) and have succeeded in overcoming the problem (hence “positive”). Because these individuals found success in spite of great odds represents social proof that local and sustainable solutions exist, and we may be able to learn from them.
