Australia is becoming an increasingly unhealthy society. Almost two in three Australian adults are now overweight or obese, and almost one in five experience some form of mental illness every year. This is bad news both for our health as individuals and our economy as a nation – but Australia’s peak town planning body, the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), has a new angle on how to set this grim trend in reverse.
There is a growing body of evidence that indicates the built environment – that is, our streets, neighbourhoods, towns and cities – has a significant influence on our wellbeing. When designed to facilitate physical and social activity, improve access to healthy food, and foster integration and a sense of belonging, the environments in which we live, work and play give rise to happier and healthier people.
This is the premise behind PIA’s newly released Healthy Communities position statement, described by PIA CEO Kirsty Kelly RPIA as “a call to action for planners and urban designers around Australia to creatively and collectively address the sedentary lifestyle of our communities”. How? By integrating a set of principles whenever they plan new settlements and suburbs or redesign and renew existing ones.
This means encouraging and supporting the development of environments that promote physical activity, healthy eating and social and mental wellbeing. It means considering health perspectives throughout the planning process, and incorporating community health and wellbeing as integral objectives and outcomes in planning legislation and policy frameworks.
A key to success will be educating relevant disciplines on how and why they should help shape healthy communities. Whether it is through interdisciplinary planning and design processes; through professional development; or through the creation of planning documentation that teach planners, political decision-makers and the community on the correlation between healthy spaces and places and healthy people.
The responsibility does not lie solely with planners, of course. Success will emerge only through effective collaboration with myriad other professions and sectors, including service agencies, health professionals, engineers, architects, economists and government. In the words of Kirsty Kelly, “this exciting new release serves as a blueprint and a call to action for all these professionals to address, collectively and cooperatively, Australia’s damaging and growing health problem through their work.”
To read PIA’s Healthy Communities position statement and related materials, visit www.planning.org.au/policy