Environmental Health surveys are being carried out in some communities. They provide a detailed ‘snapshot’ of environmental health conditions in a community and they identify what needs to be done to provide healthy living conditions.
There are two types of surveys:
THS has been developing environmental health surveys as part of the process of putting together a set of Environmental Health Standards for the Northern Territory. The design of the surveys has been extensively field tested.
Surveys have been developed:
EHOs may approach you to support the survey process and will keep you informed of progress.
Approaches may vary from area to area. The survey gives a detailed assessment of the community’s living conditions. If the community is willing and interested then the same survey is repeated after a period of time.
Housing surveys can be intrusive. Surveys need to be approached with sensitivity, only be done with the community’s and householders’ informed consent.
Results can be used for a number of things:
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Contact your local EHO for more details | |
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Check to see whether an Environmental Health Survey has been done in your community and when | |
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If a survey has been done: look at the results; discuss them with the EHW and the EHO for your area; they can help you to interpret results | |
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If no survey has been done, start talking about why doing a survey may be a good idea | |
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If a survey is under way, support the process in any way you can | |
Case study : no survey without serviceBefore we did the environmental health survey the community received permission from the Indigenous Housing Authority of the Northern Territory (IHANT) to use their normal housing grant of $100,000 - (which was not enough to build a house) for maintenance. We didn’t want to just go in and survey and give nothing back. We try to follow the principle espoused by Fred Hollows of "no survey without service". We were very pleased when the Council voted to use the funding for housing repairs. After the first year IHANT said they would give us an additional $1000 per house to do further repairs. People need to be able to wash their clothes and bedding to reduce many common infections. ATSIC has now provided $60,000 to build a laundromat to address the 70% of houses without washing machines found in the survey. These will be coin operated, commercial size and quality and pay their way. We’ve been working in the community for about a year now. Nearly all the money has been spent. We’ve done a lot, moving through houses and doing maintenance work. We had a priority list. We started working first on electrical safety, then we worked on taps and showers, then on hot water and so on. The money for the project is controlled by the community, who make decisions about how it will be spent. The survey results have helped them to make decisions. The survey results have also been used by the National Aboriginal Health Strategy - Environmental Health Program (NAHS - EHP). They have used the results to help them make decisions about the $2.2 million that has been allocated to the community for new houses and renovations. Bill Hardy, EHO, East Arnhem |
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There are many people and agencies involved in environmental health. Drawing up a chart of ‘roles and responsibilities’ can help clarify who is responsible for what. A step by step process is outlined below. | |
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Talk about the idea with other health staff | |
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Talk with your local EHW and the EHO. Explain that you want to find out more about who is involved in environmental health and what they do. Ask if they are willing to help | |
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Talk about the idea with other stakeholders and people who can provide advice. For example: |
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Write some headings on butcher’s paper. Use either: |
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Talk together about each of the headings. For example, in relation to health hardware, you could ask: |
As people talk, list under headings names, titles, roles or responsibilities and any other useful information.
This exercise will help you to identify key contact people, possible gaps in services, and could give you additional insight into attitudes, experience and skills of people and agencies involved in environmental health
In some communities there are no EHWs and EHOs may not visit often. As a result, getting an overview of environmental health in your area may be more of a challenge. Working with a map is a fast way of gaining more information about local environmental health issues.
Working on a map can help you to find out such things as:
Here is an outline of a step by step process for doing a participatory mapping exercise.
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Tell people that you would like to get a better understanding of environmental health by working on a map of the community | |
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Ask if they would be willing to help. Explain to people what you will do with the information. You may need to explain to people exactly what is meant by ‘Environmental Health’ (see Section 1). Always take care not to build up expectations | |
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Ask people to assist you to draw a map by hand or use SLAP plans. You can purchase these plans from the Department of Housing and Local Government. They are available for many communities | |
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Walk together around the community before drawing the map, noticing and discussing things as you walk | |
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As the map is drawn, or as SLAP plan is filled in, discuss issues as they arise. Talk about associated history, ideas and reasons | |
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If the map is drawn on the ground don’t forget to take a photograph so that the information is not lost |
