Did you know that almost 3 in 5 serious workplace injuries involve a tradie? That’s why this month at Pryme is all about Tradies National Health Month, a campaign created by the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) that runs from 1–31 August every year to raise awareness of the health and injury risks affecting workers across different trades.
According to statistics from Safe Work Australia, tradies make up only 35% of the Australian workforce, but they represent nearly 60% of serious claims for worker’s compensation. It’s on the basis of these statistics that the Australian Physiotherapy Association started Tradies National Health Month, and why every year we should take part in raising awareness of workplace injuries and how to prevent them. By taking part in just a few small activities, we can all contribute to reducing the impact of serious injuries on the families, friends and employers of our important trade workforce.
Protecting your most valuable tool: your body
The Australian Physiotherapy Association provides a wealth of information on helping tradies to stay safe on the job, including a range of small changes you can make to your work practices to reduce your risk of injury and to stay in peak working condition.
Part of Tradies National Health Month is encouraging tradies, as well as their friends, family and employers, to pay attention to their health and wellbeing. You can contribute to this awareness by paying attention to your workers’ activities—including safe lifting practices, and maintaining health and fitness—and by seeking and providing educational resources on preventing and managing injuries. There are simple strategies you can encourage your workers to incorporate into their daily routines to maintain their own safety, including warming up for 5–10 minutes before starting work each day, and repositioning and spacing tasks to avoid overuse and fatigue injuries. You can read more about helpful physiotherapeutic strategies for workplaces here: https://choose.physio/tradieshealth/getinvolved and here: www.tradieshealth.com.au
Adding physio to your toolkit
Physiotherapy can treat many of the common injuries that tradies and other workers experience, including shoulder, back and knee pain, and soft tissue injuries including muscle strains, tears and sprains can occur because of the intense and repetitive nature of labouring.
But that’s not all that physiotherapy can do for our workers. While musculoskeletal issues make up the bulk of a physio’s work, they can also help with a range of other health conditions, including chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes, stroke recovery, exercise prescription, nutrition, and pelvic floor issues. Physios can provide valuable educational resources to your team that can help to manage pre-existing health issues that can be exacerbated by work or impact on the safe performance of work tasks, helping your team to stay in good shape and reduce their risk of work-related injuries.
Staying safe on the job
Australia’s trade industry continues to have among the highest health and safety issues of any sector. But with some sound strategies, we can all contribute to reducing the impact that time off work due to poor health, injury or illness has on families, businesses, communities, the health care system and the economy.
Along with paying attention to workers’ health and maintaining safe working practices, it’s important to have the right tools for the job. That’s why we do what we do at Pryme: we’ve got a comprehensive suite of products to mitigate almost any safety risk your workers could face in your workplace—including dropped tools, heatstroke, and ergonomic injury. Browse our new catalogue or contact us anytime for more information on protecting your workers, and we’ll be happy to help you make your workplace a safer place.
