The Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioners course brings together a diverse mix of housing and health professionals to promote practical and cost-effective methods for making homes healthier. A major strength of the course is the peer-to-peer learning that occurs between students. Through exercises, demonstrations and discussions, students better understand the roles, perceptions and challenges that their counterparts face. And they identify ways to coordinate their work to better protect residents from environmental and safety hazards in the home.
Energy auditors provide a valuable service to property owners and residents by identifying opportunities to save energy and money. Often the problems they identify also contribute to moisture problems, pest problems and contaminates such as lead dust. If remediation is not done properly, it could also create potential environmental hazards.
Energy auditors will benefit from the course because it will help them:
- Identify connections between the structural problems they find and potential health impacts to better convince clients of the need to address shortcomings;
- Expand into new, potentially lucrative business opportunities helping clients resolve healthy homes problems;
- Develop networks among the public health and housing community to strengthen the quality of services; and
- Gain insight into the perspectives of nurses, code inspectors, environmental health specialists, community-based organizations, and pest management professionals that help all be more effective.