Engaging communities to tackle anti-social behaviour: a health impact assessment of a citizens' jury

SummaryObjectivesTo carry out a health impact assessment (HIA) of the Netherley Valley Citizens' Jury that was set up to develop recommendations for how anti-social behaviour should be addressed in their community.Study designConcurrent HIA based on the Merseyside Guidelines for HIA and the European Policy HIA Guidelines.MethodsLiterature reviews, community profiling, and interviews and workshops with stakeholders and key informants were undertaken.ResultsA wide range of positive and negative impacts were identified, and 20 recommendations were developed to suggest ways of maximizing the potential positive impacts on health and wellbeing and minimizing the negative impacts.ConclusionsThis HIA provided a unique opportunity to compare predicted and actual health impacts, which illustrates the importance of assessing the potential impacts of processes as well as intended outcomes. It also highlighted some of the potential risks involved in engaging with communities, and reinforced the value of assessing the potential impacts on health of policies, programmes and projects that may intuitively appear to be beneficial to all involved.