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Health Impact Assessment Short Course

Introduction

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a useful mechanism to assist people from a diverse range of sectors, to incorporate considerations of health and wellbeing into policy, project and program development processes. The development of policies, programs and projects across all levels of government occurs in complex political and administrative environments.

The intention of people using HIA is for it to aid the decision-making process and ensure health is considered in planning where it currently is not. It is not intended that considerations of health take primacy over necessary economic, environmental and social considerations. Rather, the intention when using HIA is to enrich the planning and development process by adding evidence of the likely health impacts of one decision over another.

HIA can also assist in building partnerships across diverse sectors and thus formally support and enable opportunities for integrated planning. Establishing priorities for action and making explicit the trade-offs inherent within the decision-making process, where necessary, based on an enhanced evidence base of the likely implications for health is also possible through the use of HIA.

Course Aim

This four day short course is structured to assist practitioners across a range of sectors learn about the processes of HIA, to develop a greater understanding of its utility in practice and enable participants to develop confidence in the technical skills required for using HIA in their professional practice. The course will explore the context of HIA, the principles that underpin it, the practical stages of HIA and associated methods and procedures as well as introduce participants to current applications of HIA, demonstrating its utility in a broad range of contexts. Case studies and activities will allow for practical applications of the concepts and frameworks covered in the course and will enable participants to further explore HIA and its potential use within their own organisation. Participants will also have opportunities to network and share experiences with people with similar interests.

Who Should Attend?

The course is open to any person involved in or wanting to learn about health impact assessment. The course is relevant to those working in a range of contexts including government, not-for profit and corporate sectors.