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Health Impact Assessment
Asking the question "is it healthy?" at the outset of projects, policies or programmes, allows potential positive impacts upon the health and well-being of communities to be increased and potential negative impacts to be reduced. Decisions in 'non-health' areas such as the economy, transport, agriculture, manufacturing, housing and law and order have far more effects on the health of the populations than decisions in 'health areas'. Considerable scope exists to achieve better health and well being by assessing the health impacts of these policies, programmes and projects. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is an emerging methodology which aims to inform decision makers about the expected health consequences of proposals in all areas.
HIA is defined as a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, programme or project can be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population and the distribution of these effects within the population (WHO Gotenborg Consensus Paper, 1999). It is characterised by its participatory approach which emphasises the involvement of a range of stakeholders, including the public, so that expertise and opinions can be taken into consideration in the planning and decision making process.
Stages of Health Impact Assessment
Health Impact Assessment involves six stages:
• Screening which determines the need to carry out a HIA;
• Scoping which sets the terms of reference for the HIA;
• Appraisal which assesses the proposal's potential to positively or negatively effect health;
• Reporting which conveys the findings of the assessment and includes the evidence;
• Decision making which makes decisions about changing the proposal to minimize the negative effects and maximise the positive
impacts and
• Monitoring and evaluation which assess the extent to which the changes to the proposal have been made and also evaluates
the health impact assessment process itself.
HIA in Galway
A major challenge for HIA is that unlike Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), HIA is not supported by a legal framework in Europe. However, the National Health Strategy, Quality and Fairness (2001), stated under Goal 1, Better health for everyone, Objective 1, that health impact assessment will be introduced as part of the public policy development process. Also, in both Galway City and County development plans, conducting a HIA are included.
A group including representatives from the Department of Public Health, HSE West, National University of Galway, Galway Healthy Cities project, Galway City Council and Galway County Council are examining potential projects that are being planned in the City and County. The next stage is to begin the HIA process which includes screening the potential projects to select an appropriate project and develop terms of reference.
HIA Seminar
The Department of Public Health, HSE West, the Department of Health Promotion at NUI Galway and the Galway Healthy Cities project hosted a seminar on Friday 1st June to increase awareness of Health Impact Assessment and to explore how it can be used in planning and decision making in the West of Ireland.
Over 60 people from local authorities, educational bodies and voluntary groups attended the seminar. The purpose of the seminar was to begin discussions amongst interested parties in the HIA process and explore how different sectors, agencies and institutions could form national and local communities of interest to examine the potential role of HIA in their work.
Speakers at the conference included Erica Ison who is consultant to the World Health Organisation on HIA, Owen Metcalfe, Associate Director, Institute of Public Health in Ireland and Frank Dawson, Director of Services, Galway County Development Board.
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