Health Impact Assessment

Knowledge and use of health impact assessment methods will be vital in ensuring that the legacy of future growth and renewal will be healthy sustainable communities.

Department of Health SouthWest is supporting a programme of capacity raising in the region.

These web pages have been created to provide resources and support for planners, public health professionals and other related professions.

We are not advocating that health impact assessment is undertaken on each and every development. But we are strongly advocating a more thorough understanding of health impact assessment methods, application and objectives. As our knowledge grows and we share experience, we are all realising that there are many ways of ensuring a healthier outcome for developments - but undertaking a desk study health impact assessment once a drawing board project has been finalised is not one of them.

Use health impact assessment for scoping, combine it with sustainability appraisal and strategic environmental assessment, use it with stakeholders, use it often and use it where it will make a difference.

Resources

The basics
What is Health Impact Assessment?
Recommended Health Impact Assessment websites

Regional work
Resources from the South West Regional Health Impact Assessment Workshops held at the Winter Gardens, Weston-Super-Mare on 18 November 2009, at the University of Plymouth, Plymouth on 6 July 2010 and in Bristol on 24 March 2011.

Planning and health resources
Links to a range of resources relevant to HIA and wider issues of health and planning.

Search the HIA database
A resource of actual HIAs carried out in the South West region searchable by type, issue and process.