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Completed Projects

• New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project
• Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment
• Developing a Conceptual Framework for the Impact and Effectiveness of HIA

New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project

Project Coordinator

Elizabeth Harris

Investigators

Elizabeth Harris, Sarah Simpson, Ben Harris-Roxas

Other Team Members

Marilyn Wise, Lynn Kemp, Patrick Harris, Jane Lloyd

Partners

NSW Health

Background

Our work on health impact assessment began in 2003 when CHETRE was funded to explore the potential use of health impact assessment within the NSW health system, as recommended in the NSW Health and Equity Statement. The Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE) was successful in winning the tender to undertake Phase 3 of the NSW Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Project. This phase of the project began in 2005.

Aims

Phase 3 will build on Phases 1 and 2 with a view to integrating HIA into the NSW Health System as a tool to improve internal planning and decision-making, and as a way to engage external partners on initiatives which influence health outcomes.

Design and Method

The project seeks to build NSW Health’s capacity to undertake health impact assessment while researching:

• how health impact assessment can be used to redress health inequities;
• how health impact assessment can be used as an intervention to improve the considerationof health impacts in decision-making; and
• approaches to capacity building.

 

Project activities centre on a “learning by doing” approach. Twelve sites from across NSW Health have undertaken health impact assessments, with 8 more to commence in 2006. Participants are supported by CHETRE through training, site visits, a health impact assessment helpdesk and online resources.

 

Detailed information is available on the NSW HIA Project page

Publications

1. Maxwell M, Harris P, Peters S, Thornell M, D'Souza L. A health impact assessment on the construction phase of a major hospital redevelopment. Australia Health Review. 2008; 32 (3): 509-519.
2. Quigley and Watts. 2008. Independent Evaluation of Phase 3 of the NSW HIA Project, Quigley and Watts Pty Ltd: Wellington. Access Full Report PDF Access Sumary Report PDF
   Tarantola D, Byrnes A, Johnson M, Kemp L, Zwi AB, Gruskin S. Human rights, health and human development. Australian Journal of Human Rights, 2008, in press.
3. Harris, E. 2007. NSW Health HIA Capacity Building Program: Mid-term Review. UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales: Sydney. Access PDF
4. Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Harris E, Kemp L. 2007. Health Impact Assesessment: A practical guide. Sydney. Access PDF
5. Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Harris E. An overview of the regulatory planning system in New South Wales: identifying points of intervention for health impact assessment and consideration of health impacts. New South Wales Public Health Bulletin. September/October; 18(9-10): 188-191. Access PDF
6. Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Harris E, Kemp L. Health impact assessment and urbanization: lessons from the NSW HIA project. New South Wales Public Health Bulletin. May/June; 18(9-10): 198-201. Access PDF
7. Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Kemp L. Health impact assessment in urban settings. New South Wales Public Health Bulletin. September/October; 18(9-10): 149-150. Access PDF
8. Harris-Roxas B, Harris P. Learning by doing: the value of case studies of health impact assessment. NSW Public Health Bulletin. May/June; 18(9-10): 161-163. Access PDF
9. Hughes J, Kemp L. Building health impact assessment capacity as a lever for public health policy in urban planning. New South Wales Public Health Bulletin. May/June; 18(9-10): 192-195. Access PDF
10. Menzies, T. 2007. Reflections on ways HIA can be made most useful to Local Government in NSW. UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales: Sydney. Access PDF
11. Harris E, Harris P, Kemp L. Rapid Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment of the Australia Better Health Initiative: Assessing the NSW components of priorities 1 and 3, UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity: Sydney, November 2006. Access PDF
12. Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Harris E, Kemp L. Healthy Urban Planning: Recommendations from the New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project, Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE): Sydney, 2006. Access PDF
13. Harris E. Contemporary Debates in Health Impact Assessment: What? Why? When? NSW Public Health Bulletin 2005; 16(7-8):107-108. Access PDF
14. Harris E, Sainsbury P, Staff M. Health Impact Assessment in New South Wales. NSW Public Health Bulletin 2005; 16(7-8):105-106. Access PDF
15. Harris-Roxas B, Simpson S. NSW Health Impact Assessment Project. NSW Public Health Bulletin 2005;16(7-8):120-123. Access PDF
16. Harris-Roxas B, Simpson S, Harris E. Impact Assessment, a discussion paper prepared for the NSW Health Futures Planning Project. Sydney: CHETRE UNSW; 2005. Access PDF
17. Simpson S. An Introduction to Health Impact Assessment. NSW Public Health Bulletin 2005;16(7-8):106-107. Access PDF
18. Simpson S, Harris E, Harris-Roxas B. Health Impact Assessment: An introduction to the what, why and how. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 15(2): 162-167, 2004.
19. Simpson S, Harris E. New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project: Phase 1 report, Sydney: CHETRE UNSW; 2003. Access PDF

Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment

Project Coordinator

Elizabeth Harris

Investigators

Rosemary Aldrich, Mary Mahoney, Elizabeth Harris, Jenny Stewart Williams

Other Team Members

Sarah Simpson, Ben Harris-Roxas

Funder

Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing PHERP Innovative Grants Program

Background

A consortium led by the Newcastle Institute of Public Health sought funding to develop a HIA tool that had a specific focus on health inequity and to pilot this tool in five sites.

Aims

The aimsof the project were:

1. Develop an Equity Focussed HIA based on the development of a position statement and literature review
2. Pilot the EFHIA framework in five sites
3. Present the findings to an international meeting
4. Finalise the report
   

Design and Method

Literature review and case studies.

 

Detailed information is available on the Equity Focused HIA page

Publications

1. Harris-Roxas B, Harris P. Learning by doing: the value of case studies of health impact assessment. NSW Public Health Bulletin. May/June; 18(9-10): 161-163. Access PDF
2. Harris E, Harris P, Kemp L. Rapid Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment of the Australia Better Health Initiative: Assessing the NSW components of priorities 1 and 3, UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity: Sydney, November 2006. More Information
3. Simpson S, Mahoney M, Harris E, Aldrich R, Stewart Williams J. Equity-Focused Health Impact Assessment: A tool to assist policy makers in addressing health inequalities. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 2005; 25(7-8):799-807.
4. Harris-Roxas B, Simpson S, Harris E. Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment: A literature review, Sydney: CHETRE UNSW and ACHEIA; 2004. Access PDF
5. Mahoney M, Simpson S, Harris E, Aldrich R, Stewart Williams J. Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment Framework. Newcastle: CHETRE UNSW and ACHEIA; 2004. Access PDF
6. Stewart Williams J, Aldrich R, Mahoney M, Harris E, Simpson S. Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment: working collaboratively for a strategic framework, Newcastle: CHETRE UNSW and ACHEIA; 2004. Access PDF

   Developing a Conceptual Framework for Evaluating the Impact and Effectiveness of HIA

Project Coordinator

Ben Harris-Roxas

Investigators

Ben Harris-Roxas, Judy Proudfoot, Lynn Kemp, Vanessa Rose

Background

Health impact assessment (HIA) is a structured decision-making aid that is used to assess the health impacts of a policy, program or project. A key challenge facing HIA is to demonstrate its impacts and effectiveness in influencing decision-making and population health outcomes. To date only a limited number of evaluations have been undertaken on completed HIAs and there is an acknowledged shortage of evaluations looking at the impact of HIA on decision-making.

Aims

This study will develop a conceptual framework for evaluating the adoption of HIA recommendations and other reported indirect impacts.

Design and Method

This study builds upon the NSW Health Impact Assessment and Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment projects that have been undertaken by the Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CPHCE), the latter in conjunction with the Newcastle Institute of Public Health and the HIA Unit at Deakin University. Study participants will be recruited from the pool of people who were involved in completed HIAs. The study will identify the direct and indirect impacts and develop of a set of criteria for evaluating the impacts and effectiveness of HIA.

More information

Harris-Roxas B. Conceptual Framework for the Impact and Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment, Centre for Health Equity, Training, Research and Evaluation: Sydney, 2008. Access Page

Current Projects

Further Information

For more information on our research please contact info@hiaconnect.edu.au.