Supportive Environments

Supportive environments for active living

People’s participation in physical activity and the type of food they eat is influenced by the built, natural and social environments in which they live. Communities and local governments have a crucial role to play in creating environments that promote opportunities for active living and healthy eating.

Many modern built environments encourage sedentary lifestyles and contribute to the modern public health epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. These same built environments encourage car dependence and the resultant environmental impacts such as climate change. They may also potentially undermine community strength and cohesiveness, because people don't have opportunities to meet and connect simply by being active in their local area. People may also be reluctant to use poorly designed and maintained built environments because they perceive them as unsafe.

What sorts of neighbourhoods promote active living?
A “walkable” neighbourhood is one whose physical environment is conducive to walking. Key elements of a walkable neighbourhood are:

Good access to local facilities (less than 400 m to the local shop, school or town centre)
Footpaths
Aesthetic features of the physical environment
Good connectivity (i.e. streets that take you directly to facilities rather than weaving about or ending in cul-de-sacs)
Lots of open space and green space
A sense of place created though public and community art
A sense of safety
Lack of heavy traffic
Mixed use planning (mix of residential, retail and public amenities)
Well connected, integrated public transport.

Planning for Active Living
To help support healthy planning, The Premiers Council for Active Living (PCAL) has developed a web- based resource ‘Designing Places for Active Living’. Specific design considerations and links to key references to help create environments for active living are provided for urban places in metropolitan, regional and rural areas. This resource is developed to be used with current NSW planning policies and processes.

Healthy by Design
A "Planners Guide to Environments for Active Living” has been developed by the Heart Foundation in response to local government requests for practical guidelines in designing walkable, and ultimately more liveable communities. Design considerations detailed in the guide facilitate healthy planning and healthy places for people to live and work.

Healthy Planning Forums
The Premiers Council for Active Living ,in collaboration with key partners such as the National Heart Foundation and the University of NSW Faculty of the Built Environment , have developed workshops which engage relevant agencies to consider how they can contribute to the creation and maintenance of supportive environments at the local level. The NUPA team will be hosting “Healthy Planning Forums” in the North Coast in April 2008.

Case Study - Coffs Harbour Health Impact Assessment (HIA)
Local governments have a crucial role to play in creating environments that promote opportunities for wellbeing and active living. The North Coast Area Health Service and the Coffs Harbour City Council worked together on a HIA to ensure that future planning for the Coffs Harbour area included healthy choices as the easy choices. The project was supported by the UNSW Centre Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE).

Active Transport

Active transport is about walking and cycling, or other physically active ways of travelling, that can be done alone or combined with catching public transport. The choices that we make about our transport modes can result in important health benefits, in contrast to reliance on car travel, which encourages a sedentary lifestyle. For more information on active transport, check our links page.

Walk to Work Day
Walk to Work day is an initiative that encourages regular walking and physical activity as a part of a healthy lifestyle.

At North Coast Area Health Service in 2007, 30 Walking Class Heroes walked cycled or carpooled a total of 620 km to work on National Walk to Work day saving 7 kg of CO2 emissions and saving participants $465 that they would have otherwise spent on car costs.

Ride 2 Work Day
In October 2007, 90,000 regular and first-time riders from all states and territories joined the inaugural National Ride to Work Day including 60 North Coast Area Health Service staff. National participation this year exceeded all expectations. Phone 02656 26066 if you would like to organise or be part of a promotion on the North Coast and /or go to the website at Bicycle Victoria.

Healthy Food Environments

Food consumption problems such as low intakes of fruit and vegetables and high intakes of energy dense, nutrient poor food and drinks have contributed greatly to obesity and other diet related health conditions. If we look around at the food environment there are countless examples of things that undermine healthy eating, things that make the healthy choices – difficult choices (Webb and King 2000). Poor access to low cost, healthy food choices as well as the advertising of less healthy choices make eating well difficult, especially for those people in the community who do not have car transport.

Food Security

Community food security recognizes the need to use a host of community-based institutions and sectors - from agriculture to community development to public health to government assistance - to achieve true food security for all households in a given area or region.

In Australia we have a relatively new phenomenon whereby we find food insecure people suffer from complications such as overweight and obesity, diabetes and heart disease due to the kinds of foods that are being accessed. Community organisations and local governments are combining community development with projects involving growing food and providing outlets to increase access to affordable fresh food. Here are a few examples of how the north coast community is addressing these problems.

Healthier Food and Drinks for NSW Health Facilities
The Minister for Health has called for increased availability of healthier food and drinks in NSW Health facilities for staff and visitors. NSW Health has responded with a comprehensive policy to guide action towards this end. This policy acknowledges that NSW Health facilities are well-placed to model healthy eating for the broader community and that they have a responsibility to provide their large workforce with healthier food and drink choices.

The first phase of policy implementation (November 2007-June 2009) will focus on limiting commercial, ready-to-eat and pre-packaged food and drink products sold from NSW Health facilities.

A Healthy Food Products website has been developed to help businesses chose healthier food products. You can search by product, food category or company. Just because a product is not on the list, doesn’t mean it is not appropriate or able to be sold/used. Check the Red Food Criteria Summary Table and make your own assessment of the product.

Community Gardens
Community gardens can increase access to fruits and vegetable and provide a great social way of getting physically active. As social venues, community gardens can be used to build a sense of community and belonging. Community gardens can provide allotments for individuals or work as whole gardens that groups of people choose to work and share the harvest. Some community gardens such as Rainbow Farm in Lismore incorporate ‘work for the dole’ programs. Another useful community garden website is The Australian Community Garden.

Fruit and Vegetable boxes
The aim of fruit and vegetable boxes is to increase community consumption of fruit and vegetables while at the same time supporting the local economy. Local grocers box a variety of fruit and vegetables weekly for a set price paid by the consumer. The amount of choice consumers have can be determined between the grocer and the customer. Grocers also occasionally offer recipes and nutritional handouts relating to the fruit and vegetables provided. Grocers can also often offer delivery to consumers who find it difficult to leave the house.

Fruit and Vegetable boxes in Aboriginal Communities
Bulgarr Ngaru Aboriginal Medical Corporation has a unique scheme that delivers fresh fruit to isolated Aboriginal Communities. Dr Ray Jones began the fruit program after he discovered that every child at the local primary school was vitamin C and iron deficient. After just six months of fresh fruit deliveries, skin infections were reduced to nil and hearing loss improved by almost one-third.

Since then, the program has been extended across the Clarence Valley and parents are improving their children's health by changing the contents of their lunch boxes. Subsidised fruit and vegetable boxes are now provided to families in order to assist in this continued development.