Manual handling and psych risks targeted by safety chief

As published on OHS Alert on Wednesday, 19 October 2022 3:25pm

An organisation in an industry with unique physical and emotional hazards is designing out manual handling tasks and improving workers' psychological health through research projects and other strategies, its Executive General Manager of Health, Safety and Sustainability has revealed.

Grace Westdorp of InvoCare – an ASX-listed provider of funeral, cemetery, crematoria and related services – is responsible for the wellbeing of more than 2,100 employees.

She said the health and safety risks common to all industries are exacerbated in the funeral sector, through the physical work involved in transferring the deceased through the mortuary, funeral and burial or cremation processes, and the psychological demands of confronting death on a daily basis.

Those most at risk include transfer crews, funeral arrangers, mortuary teams and workers who use heavy machinery within Memorial Parks, she said.

"There is a lot of manual handling associated with movement of deceased so we are doing a huge amount of work looking at how to best utilise equipment to reduce the need to do heavy lifting," Westdorp said.

That work includes redesigning mortuaries to create intersecting zones, where all equipment fits together, she said.

"This means that once a person who has passed comes into our care, we have specialised equipment that essentially takes out manual handling all the way until the cremation or burial," she explained.

She added that she and her team of health and safety professionals are, under the guidance of a professor of ergonomics, "using science and data" to improve the experience of work and reduce injury risks.

Further, InvoCare recently undertook studies with La Trobe University on the biomechanics between a person and equipment involved in moving the deceased, and the results will inform the selection of new equipment and help refine manual handling techniques, she said.

Training leaders to spot workers in need

Westdorp stressed that looking after workers' psychological health is particularly important in the funeral industry, given they come face-to-face with death and help people going through an extremely tough period.

The COVID-19 pandemic put additional pressure on workers in the sector, with public health restrictions impacting how many people could attend funerals and how services could be delivered, she noted.

"The emotional load associated with providing funeral services is more of a chronic risk than an acute risk in the funeral sector; it's usually a cumulative effect rather than something related to a specific event," she said.

"We've recently embarked on a psychological leadership training course which will provide our leaders with the tools and knowledge to be able to recognise when someone in their team needs additional support and how to best provide that."

For?National Safe Work Month?this month, InvoCare is rolling out a "Health First" campaign to encourage team members to proactively look after their health, Westdorp said.

"Employers have an incredible opportunity to help their teams understand that we all only have one place to live and that's your own body," she said.

"If you don't look after it you are not going to?live younger?longer and you're not going to have your best life.

"The best thing about my role is being able to positively impact our employees' experience at work, from our groundskeepers to our executive team, and help each individual be the best version of themselves."