Community Environmental Health Assessment (CEHA)

One of the principal goals of a community environmental health assessment (CEHA) process is to improve the health status of a community and thereby to achieve CDC’s Healthy Communities Goal: “Increase the number of communities that protect, and promote health and safety and prevent illness and injury in all their members” (Healthy Communities)

How Do CEHAs Strengthen Environmental Health Programs?

The Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE EH) and other CEHA processes can be used to operationalize the 10 Essential Services of Environmental Public Health.

Local environmental health agencies most often mention strengthening of the following essential services as part of their PACE EH processes:

• Assessment: monitor health; diagnose and investigate
• Policy development: inform, educate, and empower; mobilize community partnerships; develop policies
• Assurance: assure a competent workforce

PACE EH: One Tool for CEHAs

The Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE EH) is the methodology promoted by the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) to conduct CEHAs in both domestic and international settings. PACE EH offers guidance to communities and local health officials for conducting community-based environmental health assessments to

• identify environmental health issues,
• prioritize the identified issues,
• develop action plans, and
• evaluate the progress to address selected issues.

PACE EH improves the environmental health decision-making process by strengthening community involvement so that public values and priorities are considered. The PACE EH guidebook ( Spanish version [PDF - 943 KB]) offers guidance for improving local environmental health status and redefining the role of leadership in local environmental health.

The PACE EH process evaluation [PDF - 1.7 MB] conducted by the Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation concluded that the major impacts of implementing a CEHA such as PACE EH include the following:

• Building networks and collaboration.
• Improving knowledge and skills in environmental health issues and collaborative processes.
• Increasing awareness of environmental health concerns.
• Increasing trust between collaborators.
• Strengthening the perception of the health agency as leader.

The impacts of PACE EH processes can lead to real changes in communities and in addressing community needs. For example, a PACE EH process was used in the community of Wabasso by the Florida Department of Public Health. The community identified its top “health” issues as lack of safe/healthy housing, community safety from violence (drug trafficking), street lighting, accessible areas for safe physical activity and recreation, access to safe drinking water, and septic failures/lack of access to a municipal wastewater system.

As a result of the process, streetlights and sidewalks were installed, abandoned homes were removed, existing homes were repaired, and other improvements that affect health were made. The community also felt that after using PACE EH, government was better able to respond to issues in the community.

The Wabasso experience is just one example of a community using a community engagement tool to identify and address health concerns. Other resources include the EPA Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program and the EPA-CDC/ATSDR Collaboration.

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