Health & Housing

Poor environmental and living conditions promote the spread of infectious diseases. To achieve good health outcomes, most houses in a community must have health hardware functioning most of the time. Houses must be designed well, soundly constructed and regularly maintained.

This section of the Guide provides information on the health hardware required to ensure the nine Healthy Living Practices are taken into account when designing, upgrading or maintaining a house.

Functioning health hardware and the capacity to perform Healthy Living Practices reduce the pool of infectious organisms and, therefore, rates of diarrhoeal disease, skin infection, pneumonia, eye infection and other transmissible diseases. These diseases are common in many Indigenous communities in remote areas.

Washing People
B1 - Washing People
Washing clothes and bedding
B2 - Washing clothes and bedding
Removing waste water safely
B3 - Removing waste water safely
Improving nutrition – the ability to store, prepare and cook food
B4 - Improving nutrition – the ability to store, prepare and cook food
Reducing the negative impacts of crowding
B5 - Reducing the negative impacts of crowding
Reducing the negative effects of animals, insects and vermin
B6 - Reducing the negative effects of animals, insects and vermin
Reducing the health impacts of dust
B7 - Reducing the health impacts of dust
Controlling the temperature of the living environment
B8 - Controlling the temperature of the living environment
Reducing hazards that cause minor injury (trauma)
B9 - Reducing hazards that cause minor injury (trauma)