Taking the HUNTT to the North East of Adelaide

On the 6th of July, Michael McGreevy, Fran Baum and Connie Musolino from the Southgate Institute undertook a field trip to the North East suburbs of Adelaide, as part of the Healthy Urban Neighbourhood Transition Tool (HUNTT) research.

The researchers were invited by Frances Bedford, State Member for Florey and the North East Residents Action Group. The group is concerned with improving the urban environment of their suburbs and providing a voice to local residents in the development of their neighbourhoods, and so are in the development stages of the Better North East Initiative.  They see potential in the HUNTT for aiding the Initiative.

Building on the MRFF funded project Healthy South, in which the HUNTT was developed, Wellbeing SA and Flinders University have funded the testing of the Tool in 20 suburban neighbourhoods across metropolitan Adelaide in 2020.

The project identified small-scale urban development and ‘infill’ as a potentially important but overlooked mechanism for producing low-risk environments for non-communicable disease (NCDs), such as improving walkability. The HUNTT is designed as a tool to review established neighbourhoods in regard to a comprehensive array of social determinants of health and health equity, with the objective of using information from these reviews to enable comparison between neighbourhoods in terms of liveability and guide the transition management of neighbourhoods as a means of improving liveability, health and health equity.

The HUNTT is intended to assist and encourage policy makers to coordinate incremental redevelopment to improve neighbourhood liveability and the health of new and existing residents. Contact Dr Michael McGreevy for more information michael.mcgreevy@flinders.edu.au.

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