What can occupational health provide, for your business and your employees?
Occupational Health is a multifaceted and multidisciplinary medical speciality, focusing on the prevention of ill health and promoting good health, to those working or employed by your company.
Within each company, different departments, and different role; there are different risk factors that can affect your employee’s health and possibly affecting their ability to return to work after an injury or illness.
There is clear evidence that being able to work and have a sense of purpose, improves health and wellbeing across people’s lives. Conversely, unemployment or long-term absenteeism can be bad for your health and wellbeing, at times associated with an increased risk of mortality and morbidity.
Many working environments have had to adapt how they manage their working environment over the past 2 years with the ongoing pandemic. With the end of restrictions soon to be in place, some businesses are finding a few employees reluctant to return to the working environment, or uncertain how to help or deal with those on long term sickness absence.
A few services occupational health providers are able to help with:
- Case management – long term absence from work being the most common referral
- Ensure adequate health of those in safety critical roles, which can reduce accident rates. This can include those mandatory by law (asbestos), danger level (offshore work) or even those driving our buses and trains
- Health surveillance of those in risk assessed areas of loud noise, vibrating tools or even lung irritants or allergens, to pick up early warning signs and therefore help prevent further damage
- Promotion of health and early detection of risk factors through well-being checks/surveillance. With many people not having access to their normal health checks in the past 2 years, a thorough wellness check, could reduce future long term absence from the working environment
- Work- station assessments, providing a report and advise to reduce musculoskeletal problems
The facts
In the UK alone, 28.2 million days are lost due to musculoskeletal problems and 14.3 million days due to stress, anxiety, or depression. Some Occupational health services, such as ours, have an internal physiotherapy and mental health specialists, to enable employees’ access to an assessment, prompt treatment or further referrals and therefore a faster recovery time.
Provision to occupational health services, demonstrates to employees that you take their health (both physical and mental health) seriously and this can increase moral within the working environment.
