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Hello Christine

The types of initiatives you are thinking are not normally part of  a core
OH strategy. Have you got any OH qualifications? Are you part of a team who
take care of the core OH functions? OH is a speciality and I don't want to
scare you but you could easily find yourself working out side your scope of
practice exposing yourself and your employer to liability and risk,


In the first instance you need to be working with the safety team on the
health aspects of the risk assessments; this is the prevention/protection
activities -- i.e trying to stop them becoming ill/injured from work
activity in the first place which is the core of OH e..g

   - looking at a musculoskeletal policy to back up any DSE and manual
   handling risk assessments at the very basic level and beyond that looking
   at any other tasks that have a musculoskeletal load with or without awkward
   postures e..g mechanics having to bend over/ under vehicles, production
   workers standing all day and reaching/twisting, delivery men having to
   climb stairs, walk for long periods, occupational drivers etc
   - health surveillance and respiratory allergens,
   - skin surveillance if risk of skin damage
   - hard, arm and full body vibration syndrome
   - stress (work related)
   - ....to name but a few! I advise you dig into the HSE website for a few
   days to read about the various industries, exposures etc as a basic
   starting point.

BTW pregnancy risk assessments are just that .. risk assessments.. not
medical or OH assessments .. they are ideally done by the line manager as
he knows the work place and personal medical information should not be part
of the discussion; anything highlighted by the RA can then be referred to
OH, safety or HR for further advice as appropriate.

Once all the core stuff is well looked after and embedded then you need to
look at organisational health promotion initiatives e..g

   -  adding value to the attendance management process so that employees
   return to work as early as possible as work is good for health and for
   promoting recovery from surgery, illnesses etc. As part of this we look at
   barrires occurring to RTW  and if they can be removed, and if not can the
   be reduced. .. e.g. if waiting for NHS physio is delaying RTW in a
   physically demanding work environment then there may be a business case
   argument for business funding to an OH physio service to expedite RTW and
   re-establishment of task fitness.
   - early intervention and referral programmes
   - mental wellbeing policies and EAPs
   - Health @ Work leaflets e..g for the pregnant employee, posture breaks
   for DSE workers etc


Then you look at the more individual level initiatives of disease
prevention  to encourage the employee to promote their own health and make
healthy choices .e.g. wellness days, exercise classes etc


Remember your role is to add value to the business's bottom line by
supporting the attendance and performance with OH strategies.

You may find the following (link and attachments)  helpful

http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/index.html


Good luck


On 26 July 2014 11:59, Christine Mortell <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Currently, I am putting together OH Strategy for the Autumn. I am new to
> OH and so wish to run initiatives that are easy to begin with to gain my
> confidence.
>
> We have started to offer spinning classes in the onsite gym. I have linked
> in with the nutritionist in the canteen. There is a mothers room onsite
> that is used for storage. I have performed a lot of pregnancy risk
> assessments and so wish to promote breastfeeding etc. I am planning on
> running two days in September for BP Checks, Weight and BMI.
>
> Any suggestions would be welcome.....
>
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OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES:
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CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH