Occupational Health is the practice of health science that supports and promotes physical, social, and mental well-being of workers in their occupations. Work may be paid or unpaid, formally or informally arranged, may be physical, mental, emotional, and infinitely diverse. Work and employment are the things that people will spend the greatest proportions of their lives doing unless they exit the workforce owing to disability, retirement, or other reasons. People may begin working in informal arrangements from as young as their childhoods, and may remain at work until the point of or beyond retirement age.
The work that a person does exposes them to hazards which may arise as a consequence of their occupation, such as smoke when working with trucks, manual handling when working with loads, postural and visual strain when working with computers, or mental stress when working with trauma. Hazards to which a person is exposed in an occupational context may affect their health outside of work and consequently impact the quality and comfort of their lives. Occupational Health focuses on the workplace as a point of intervention, maintaining and promoting workers' health, ensuring good working conditions and a safe working environment, and developing work organisation and occupational cultures that develop health rather than degrading it.
In the context of Occupational Health and Safety, Occupational Health uses human health and wellbeing as a point of departure when considering occupational demands. The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion defines health as a resource for everyday life, and defines income as a prerequisite of health. Taken in this way, health is a resource that can be exchanged for income, which itself supports health and wellbeing. Occupational Health and Safety uses the workplace as a point of intervention to ensure that the exchange of health for income is undertaken efficiently, so that demands imposed by workplaces on workers do not degrade their health in measure greater than the benefit of income, stability, and engagement that are gained in the exchange of health as capital.
In practical application, Occupational Health is the organisation of resources, people, and systems to preserve and improve the health and wellbeing of working populations through hazard assessment and risk mitigation, health surveillance of worker wellbeing, the implementation of workplace wellness and health programs, the rehabilitation of injured workers, and the methodological organisation of these processes in a manner that is informed by national and local law, industry best practice, workplace resources and capabilities, and the needs of the workforce. Done well, this can help mitigate the risk of injury and illness that may arise from the course of a worker's undertaking in their employment, support their continued participation at work, and support worker morale.
Each workplace is different, with different demands, methods of business, and is staffed by people whose capacities, needs, and risk profiles are different. Managing ergonomic, environmental, and occupational health and safety challenges requires a business to examine and engage with the ecosystem of factors that give rise to risk, and how that risk may affect people. Each workplace is different and so sometimes the same problem will require different solutions. This applies to workers as well - every person is different and so may require different support, supervision, or resources to perform comfortably and sustainably. Under Work Health and Safety law, consultation with the workforce, the control of risk as far as is reasonably practicable, and the provision of information, training, instruction and support to the worker by the workplace, is essential to meet obligations to provide workers with a workplace that is as free of risk as far is reasonably practicable.
In our capacity as consultants, Atlas Physio will explore and scope the business and its needs, examining how exposures, risks, and processes contribute to the hazard ecosystem, best inform the design and arrangement of procedural, policy-based, and practical risk controls. Our solutions are tailored to the needs of those with whom we work, implemented in a simple, sustainable, and supportive fashion, designed to be robust and resilient, and to support the ongoing life of the business as well as the sustainable wellbeing of the workers who undertake the day to day activities of work.
At Atlas Physio, we provide reporting, structured control, and ongoing management of risk onsite, on the road, and wherever work is done. We are open seven days a week, and are happy to offer a brief complimentary discussion to explore the needs of your business and your workers if you are an employer, and your needs if you are a worker. Reach out today to arrange a discussion and take the first step toward managing risk and working safely, supported by expertise that is practical, reliable, and designed to deliver lasting results.