Good for Kids Good For Life Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment
Hunter New England Area Health Service
This report outlines the methods and findings from the Hunter New England Area Health Service’s (HNE AHS) ‘Good for Kids. Good for Life.’ program (Good for Kids) Health Impact Assessment (HIA). The HIA was completed in the period December 2006 – August 2007 and was implemented under the direction of a Good for Kids HIA working party and staff of the Good for Kids program. As an HIA development site, the working party and program staff received additional support from the University of NSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CHETRE).
The purpose of the Good for Kids equity-focused HIA was to improve the equity with which the program was delivered to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. The use of HIA’s in Aboriginal health contexts has been limited, so the HIA working party took the opportunity modify the HIA so that it better reflected the principles of Aboriginal Health. This involved drawing on equity-focussed HIA methodology, learning from HIA’s completed in indigenous communities overseas and adopting an Aboriginal model of health.