July’s meeting of the Danville Chapter of The Health Collaborative offered a brief glimpse into how we might each apply a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to decision-making. 

Google’s AI tool offers an excellent overview: “Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a collaborative approach to improve population health by integrating health considerations into policymaking across various sectors, not just the traditional health sector. It recognizes that many factors outside of healthcare, such as education, housing, transportation, and the environment, significantly impact people’s health. By working across sectors, HiAP aims to create a more holistic and effective approach to public health, addressing the root causes of health problems and promoting health equity.”

But what does HiAP look like in practice? Who uses it and how does it work? 

HiAP is often considered a tool for local governments to consider the health impacts of policy decisions, but it can in fact be used by anyone who is developing, evaluating, or setting policy. 

Perhaps without even realizing it, the Danville Chapter were applying a HiAP approach at their July 10^th meeting after hearing more about the proposed Transco pipeline expansion (not to be confused with the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is a separate, but connecting natural gas pipeline).

Representatives from The Williams Company, which owns the Transco pipeline, were in attendance to provide an overview of the project. Guests asked several questions regarding environmental and economic impacts, and the potential risks and benefits for area residents. Most of the questions asked were a variation of the following key questions: 

• Who might benefit? And how?
• Who might be harmed? And how?
• Who else might be impacted? And how?
• Who has the responsibility for making which decisions? And how?
• Who was involved in that decision-making? And how?

There are countless tools available for use when evaluating the health impacts of policy, but these are the questions at the core of them all. 

HiAP approaches can seem overwhelming when you look at the robust tools created and/or suggested by groups such as:

• NACCHO (National Association and City and County Health Officials); 
• SOPHIA, association of individuals and organizations providing leadership and promoting excellence in the practice of health impact assessment and Health in All Policies; and,
• ASTHO, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. 

By asking these core questions as we evaluate policy decisions, we begin to normalize the application of a HiAP approach, even without the adoption of a formal evaluation process. 

If you or your community partners have been overwhelmed by the idea of adopting and implementing full scale HiAP approaches, The Health Collaborative invites you to join us in making it a practice to ask these five key questions as we evaluate the potential impact of policy decisions.