Health Assessment Lens
The Health Assessment Lens is designed to inform designers, planners, and decision-makers of health conditions prior to beginning a project, plan process, or program. The purpose is to identify issues related to health and the built environment in order to inform a health-based approach to design, planning, and decision-making. It continues to be a resource for comprehensive evaluation through the development of plan or project, and into implementation.
This tool is organized around eight health categories
Equity and Justice
Human Wellbeing
Harmony with Nature
Education and Wellness
Economic Resiliency
Healthy Homes and Buildings
Healthy Community
Healthy Connections
Each section begins with a brief introduction of the health category and then contains a series of detailed questions. The Lens is designed to provide the user with a way to easily identify health amenities and gaps within their communities. It has an application for scoping out a plan, project, or program to assist the user in finding specific resources. Scoping refers to the early steps taken to identifying why a plan, project, or program is being considered, and identifying the issues or aspects that need to be considered before starting the process. Additionally, the Lens can be used to assess existing plans, programs, and to inform working plans to better integrate health into decisions and actions.