Step 1 - Screening
Determining if a HIA is Required
An understanding of what's involved in undertaking a HIA
can give us a better sense of when to use HIA and when to use other
approaches. This page provides a detailed look at screening -
the first step in a HIA.
The purpose of the screening step is to identify whether a HIA is required. It may be that
HIA is not the right method for assessing health impact. For example a
needs assessment could be undertaken when it is important to identify a
particular community's health need before developing a proposal for new or
amended health services. Where there is a specific proposal under
consideration, for example to deliver specific health services to a
particular population, a HIA may be appropriate because there is a
tangible proposal against which health impact can be identified, measured
and evaluated.
Another issue that should inform if a HIA is undertaken is establishing whether an
organisation will act on the results. There is little to be gained in
undertaking a HIA of a proposal if there is no commitment to acting on the
results. In essence, to realise the value of HIA it should be action
focused, i.e. assessing the potential impact(s) of a tangible proposal.
Other issues to consider as part of the screening step include:
- What scope is there to ameliorate negative and enhance positive health impacts?
- Size and significance of the policy/program/project - will the HIA involve more effort than the actual proposal?
- Is there significant funding attached to the proposal?
- Are there any readily apparent impacts (e.g. a landfill site next to housing)?
- Is this proposal preceded by several other initiatives in the same community? Is there a cumulative effect? For example, have there been other initiatives to address social disadvantage that have had unintended negative health impacts? Could these be further compounded by the new proposal.
- What's the reach of the proposal? Who is it likely to affect? What groups will it impact upon?
The main outcome from the screening stage is a recommendation to proceed or not
proceed with a HIA. It's important that the rationale for the
recommendation be clearly documented This is to provide a tool to assist
future groups who undertake a HIA and also as a source of information for
anyone evaluating the proposal activity once it has been rolled out.
See the section on tools for HIA for more
information on this stage.
References
- EnHealth. (2001) Health Impact Assessment Guidelines. Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra, September 2001. Read Review
- Mahoney, Mary. (2003) HIA Workshop. Presentation to HIA Workshops. Sydney: April, 2003.
- Mahoney, Mary & Durham, Gillian. (2002) Health Impact Assessment: a tool for policy development in Australia. Deakin University: Victoria.
- Scott-Samuel, Birley & Arden. (1998) The Merseyside Guidelines for Health Impact Assessment. Merseyside Health Impact Assessment Steering Group. Liverpool Public Health Observatory: Liverpool. Read Review
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