Research

Page contents: Economic Environment Research Projects | Health, wellbeing and community enterprise: the role of local government | Health credits: identifying the economic benefits of licensed premises and translating them into health outcomes at a local level | Health Impact Assessment | Built Environment

Economic Environment Research Projects

The evaluation of the Environments for Health Municipal Public Health Planning Framework highlighted the gap in our knowledge about effective interventions in the economic environment that strengthen health and wellbeing.

The Public Health Branch of the Department of Human Services has recently funded two research projects that will explore the creation of opportunities for health and wellbeing through economic development in local government.

Health, wellbeing and community enterprise: the role of local government

A team from the University of Melbourne are co-leading a project with the Victorian Local Governance Association (VLGA) that will explore the role of local government in supporting local economic participation for health, with a specific focus on community enterprise.

The project will investigate the following research questions:

1. What are the effects of community enterprise on health and wellbeing for individuals and communities?
2. How is local government supporting and/or stimulating community enterprise development in Victoria?
3. What constitutes good practice in local government support for community enterprise development?

The research team will draw on the knowledge and current practices of local councils and community enterprises across the state through an online survey, in-depth interviews and a workshop. The project will focus on community enterprises serving communities experiencing multiple disadvantage including Neighbourhood Renewal sites, Community Building sites, and newly arrived migrant and refugee communities.

This project will create new knowledge about the relationship between economic participation and health, by examining the iterative relationships between economic participation, social connectedness and civic engagement. It will generate a set of specific resources that will assist Victorian local councils to adopt good practice in identifying opportunities for feasible community enterprise establishment, supporting start-up and business development.

The resources will be compiled into a community enterprise development kit for local government. The kit will contain case study material, links to existing resources, and strategies for incorporating community enterprise development activities into municipal health and economic planning frameworks. It will be produced in hard copy and in electronic format to be hosted on the VLGA website.

The findings of the project will be launched at a public forum hosted by the Centre for Public Policy and VLGA. The forum will examine the relationship between community enterprise and health, and showcase good practice in community enterprise development from a local government perspective.

Investigator: Dr Josephine Barraket (Department of Political Science, University of Melbourne)

For further information about this project contact:
Kate Gill
Telephone: (61 3) 9096 0402

Health credits: identifying the economic benefits of licensed premises and translating them into health outcomes at a local level

A team from the University of Melbourne will undertake a project in the City of Stonnington to identify the economic harms and benefits associated with licensed premises and explore how these economic benefits can be translated into better health outcomes.

The aims of this study are to:

1. Identify unit economic costs and benefits associated with licensed premises in the City of Stonnington
2. Economically model three regulatory regimes for the creation of "health credits"
3. Explore how these economic benefits can be translated into better health outcomes at a local government level through novel governance arrangements with the alcohol industry.

This project will identify the recipients of economic benefits from licensed premises and secondly it will examine how a novel regulatory regime may translate economic benefit into health outcomes at a local level. The study will model a potential scheme to allow the alcohol industry to purchase (through in-kind, direct funding or other community-based means) "health credits" based on estimates of the unit cost/benefit of a standard alcoholic drink. The premise for this model is to offset a proportion of the harm caused by hazardous drinking.

Stakeholders across diverse arenas will be involved in the project, including local and state government health units, police, the alcohol industry, liquor licensing, local government peak bodies and non-government agencies involved in alcohol policy and planning.

Investigators: Associate Professor John Fitzgerald (Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne University), Professor Robin Room and Associate Professor Paul Dietze (Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre)

For further information about this project contact:
Ron Frew
Telephone: (61 3) 9096 5013

More information about the 2006-07 Public Health Research Program funding round is available from the Research Programs site.

Health Impact Assessment in Local Government

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) seeks to identify the potential, and often unanticipated, effects of a policy, project or program on the health of a group of people before the decision is made to proceed. The potential health impacts that any new development or policy might have may be positive, negative, or unknown and these impacts may not be spread evenly across the population.

The information gained from an HIA can assist decision-makers and the people who are likely to be affected by the policy, project or program to make the necessary changes before the policy or action is rolled out.

A project in Victoria is exploring the application of HIA within the Environments for Health planning framework of local government. This research project has been funded by a grant from Public Health Group, DHS. The project will:

• consult local governments who have applied HIA
• consult with people working in, or affiliated with, local government decision making processes to gain an understanding of the role that HIA can play in putting health and inequalities on the planning agenda, and
• work with two DHS Regional Offices in partnership with 2 municipalities to facilitate the application of HIA to their planning processes.

The outcome of the research is a report outlining recommendations for positioning and application of Health Impact Assessment within local government in Victoria. The contextual and operational conditions needed for its inclusion within Victorian local government planning processes for the purpose of assisting in the promotion of public health and the reduction of health inequalities are discussed, and the enablers and barriers to its use are identified.

The report, "The positioning of Health Impact Assessment in Local Government in Victoria" can be downloaded below.

The positioning of Health Impact Assessment in Local Government in Victoria (771kb, pdf)

Further information contact Mary Mahoney, HIA Research Unit, Deakin University marym@deakin.edu.au or Tel. (61 3) 9251 7268.

Built Environment Research Project

The Public Health Group of the Department of Human Services sought public health research proposals in the area of “the built environment and health”. Three projects were funded as part of the 2004 – 2005 public health research program.

• The built environment and children’s physical activity and weight status, Investigators: Dr Anna Timperio, Dr Kylie Ball, Dr Jo Salmon, Deakin University
• Improving health outcomes for elderly people living in a regional and rural environment, Investigators: A/Professor Susan Bailey, Dr Iain Butterworth, Dr Sally Anne Savage, Deakin University
• Improving local areas to increase physical activity and healthy food choices, Investigators: A/Professor Anne Kavanagh, A/Prof Damien Jolley, Dr Gavin Turrell, University of Melbourne (Key Centre for Women’s Health)

On Friday October 13 2006, a forum was held which profiled these and other DHS funded Public Health Research Projects and discussed the practical application of their findings. The forum program provided an opportunity to hear from the three projects examining aspects of the built environment in relation to health in a local government context, and another two projects focusing on chronic disease self management programs.

Final reports and presentations from the forum are available at
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/researchprograms/resources/forum.htm

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