Walking the walk? Community participation in HIA: A qualitative interview study

Although community participation is seen as central to the practice of health impact assessment (HIA), effective engagement of local people is notoriously difficult to achieve and risks being tokenistic. This qualitative study, set in a deprived estate in northwest England, examined how community participation in the proposed HIA of a Regeneration Masterplan would be affected by the attitudes and experiences of key stakeholders. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 stakeholders drawn from officials, representatives and local residents linked to the regeneration programme. The results suggest that there may be a large gap between professional rhetoric and the reality of community participation, and that barriers to community participation in HIA may be substantial and institutionalised. If these barriers are to be overcome, it is essential to acknowledge the existence of this rhetoric-reality gap and to address the training and resource needs of both professionals and community members