Talking Health

By now, these things have become standard, and those new to the industry don’t know any different than for safety being the top priority. It’s taken 30 years to start to get Safety right – it’ll take the next 30 to inject health into the picture.

Powered by Eaton, ‘Talking Health, Thinking Safety’ is a proactive initiative to ensure that health will become just as important to Australian transport businesses in 2013. It has taken 30 years to achieve the safety focus we have today, so why not use the next 30 to inject health into the picture? Let’s start now.

In each edition, we will guide you through the process of understanding and implementing wellness programs within a business, but also provide essential individual health and fitness tips to the transport community. 

It is important to understand how wellness programs correlate to business performance, how to effectively implement a program across your organisation, how to measure program success and sustainability, and most importantly, how to embed wellness into your company’s culture. We will also explore how wellness programs not only assist in staff retention, but in attracting young, fresh people into your business. 

2013 is the time to ‘get real’ about the state of health in Australia, making ‘Talking Health, Thinking Safety’ a timely inclusion into Prime Mover.  We can no longer hide from the fact that one Australian dies every ten minutes of heart disease and 290 Aussie’s are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes every day. That’s right, every day. The transport industry is not immune to these problems. These and other physical inflictions, along with insidious mental health issues, are already costing companies financially and culturally. Hence, the time to educate and motivate is now. It's time to mobilise health. 

Take this moment to reflect on how fit you are, the level of energy you have for work and life, the size and shape of your body, the amount of motivation you have for exercise and your enthusiasm for safety.  Where do you currently fit in the picture of Australian health?

Let’s start with a 2013 waist circumference challenge. It’s important to know that men with a waist circumference over 102cm and women over 88cm have an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. Upon reading this, please take the time to measure your waist, just under your belly button, and place your number of centimetres on the fridge.  Your challenge is to live and work through 2013, re-measure after you’ve read our December edition and ascertain whether you’ve managed to not get bigger or reduce your waist circumference.   

We want to assist you to drive more safely, reduce aches and pains, develop core muscle stability and strength, perform manual handling tasks in a safer, smarter manner and effectively manage stress and anxiety. We'll look at entering and exiting vehicles, finding/making time for regular exercise and the importance of developing a team approach to injury prevention. Understanding how to combat the placement and advertising of fatigue inducing foods and fluids is extremely important and is a topic that will continually appear throughout the next year as well.  It's not going to be dreary and drab and it's definitely going to be achievable for the masses.

In each edition, there will also be a section that answers any questions you may have around improving your health/fitness for duty or focuses on the culture of your business. We hope the questions come thick and fast. 

There is no doubt that Aussie ‘Road Warriors’ deserve support and guidance to live healthy, productive and happy lives. This segment is all about you, and we hope you enjoy it.

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