West Tyrone Area Plan 2019 Health Impact Assessment (2008)

IPH was commissioned by Western Investing for Health to conduct a HIA of the West Tyrone Area Plan 2019. Stage 1 of the HIA was submitted to the Department of the Environment, Planning Office in 2008 and part of this work involved developing a community profile. HIA seeks to inform the decision making process in favour of health by gathering evidence to identify the potential positive and negative health impacts of a proposal. A series of recommendations are then produced to maximize the positive health impacts and mitigate the potential negative health impacts of an identified proposal. West Tyrone Community A community profile provides an overview of the population structures and particular services in an identified area. This community profile provides an overview of West Tyrone and has been developed as part of a Health Impact Assessment which is currently being conducted on the West Tyrone Area Plan. This resource provides access to up-to-date information which community and voluntary groups in the West Tyrone area will find useful to support their work. Contact: Seamus Mullen, Public Health Agency Tel: +44 (0) 2871860086 Email: seamus.mullen@hscni.org

Community Education Needs to be Supported by Strong Public Policy to Tackle Food Poverty

Community education needs to be supported by strong public policy if it is to be fully effective at tackling food poverty and obesity, a project evaluation by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH) has found. In its evaluation of Decent Food for All (DFfA) - a major project to improve community diet and health - IPH found that where people live and shop had a greater impact on their diet than their own individual awareness and attitudes. Access Tackling Food Poverty: lessons from the Decent Food for All intervention at www.publichealth.ie DFfA was funded by safefood (the Food Safety Promotion Board) and the Food Standards Agency Northern Ireland. The project lasted four years and included hundreds of community education activities designed to improve diet in poorer parts of Armagh and South Tyrone. safefood commissioned IPH to undertake the evaluation of DFfA. Dr. Kevin Balanda, IPH Associate Director, said 'The aim of the project was to reduce food poverty (this is defined as not being able to consume adequate healthy food) and improve health in the target communities. DFfA delivered over 370 core activities to 3,100 residents including local education talks on diet, cookery workshops, fresh fruit in schools, healthy food tastings and information stands. One in eight residents in the target areas participated in at least one of these activities.' The evaluation found that over 1 in 5 adults in the target areas reported they had cut their weekly food spending in the last six months to pay other household bills such as rent, electricity and gas. During the four years of the DFfA activities, this percentage had not changed significantly. There were mixed changes in the nature of food in local stores. While the overall availability and price of food increased, both ﾓhealthierﾔ food and ﾓunhealthierﾔ food were included in that increase. It was only in the larger ﾓmultiple/discount freezerﾔ type of shops that the overall price of food had decreased.

IPH response to Department of the Environment (NI) Planning Policy Statement 21 (PPS21)

In responding, IPH identify a number of potential health impacts including providing employment opportunities through farm diversification.  Other issues include access to open space and housing located close to traditional focal points.   The Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH) is an all-island body which aims to improve health in Ireland, by working to combat health inequalities and influence public policies in favour of health. IPH promotes co-operation in research, training, information and policy in order to contribute to policies which tackle inequalities in health. IPH is particularly interested in the Draft Planning Policy Statement 21 due to the impact on the countryside and potential implications on health for the population of Northern Ireland. IPH conducted a Health Impact Assessment on the proposed West Tyrone Area Plan 2019 and through this work has developed extensive knowledge when looking at health and rural issues.

Gortin Community Seasonal Eating

Gortin Community Seasonal Eating is based within Owenkillew Development Company in the rural village of Gortin. They are establishing a community garden which will help to develop sustainable living through encouraging growing their own food, developing healthy options which are available locally and educating both providers and consumers in healthy food options. Their aims are to improve access to and availability of healthy food options through community growing and harvesting of fruit and vegetables and eating locally produced and procured ingredients. They will educate parents through targeting both the children and parents of local schools and play/toddler groups. They will use community networking of social media such as facebook, twitter and community newspaper to promote messages and events etc. They will promote awareness of healthy eating and will aim to challenge public policy on food poverty at regional and national levels. Part of theCFI Programme 2013-2015 Initiative Type Community Food Growing Projects Location Tyrone Partner Agencies safefood