Health Impact Assessment Guidance: A Manual. Standalone Health Impact Assessment and health in environmental assessment.

The Institute of Public Health has launched a suite of new guidance documents that can help community organisations, local authorities, and other policy- and decision-makers to build healthier communities and reduce health inequalities. 

The fourth edition of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) Guidance for Ireland and Northern Ireland represents the first major update of this all-island guidance since 2009 and has been welcomed in both jurisdictions by Minister for Health in Northern Ireland Robin Swann, MLA, and Minister of State for Public Health, Well Being, and National Drugs Strategy in Ireland, Frank Feighan, TD. 

The new HIA Guidance can assist policy- and decision-makers at national, regional or local level, including community organisations and local authorities among others, to assess the potential impact of a proposed new law, policy, programme or project and how it might affect the health of the community before it is implemented.

‘Mellow Village: A Health Impact Assessment Case Study’ sets out in detail the process and steps required to apply HIA to a hypothetical proposal to develop a mixed-use urban neighbourhood called Mellow Village.

This new case study – based on a hypothetical building project - was developed as a support tool for using the updated Health Impact Assessment Guidance and will be of interest to local authorities, community organisations, and policy- and decision-makers at local and national level.

HIA is used to assess the potential impact of a proposed new law, policy, programme or project and how it might affect the health of the community before it is implemented.

The Mellow Village case study also complements a free online course introducing the basic principles of HIA, which is available on the Institute’s digital learning platform Public Health Matters.