Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) mean any injury, damage or disorder of the joints, limbs, or back.
They’re a right pain and extremely common (accounting for around 44% of workplace absence*).
So much so, many businesses are looking at ways to prevent and manage MSDs. Occupational health can help keep employees in work or return quicker, decrease sickness absence and reduce injury.
Our five-stage approach delivers excellent results:
1. Early intervention
As soon as an issue is reported, we’ll come in and assess the situation quickly. Then, we’ll organise rehabilitation.
2. Rehabilitation
It’s better if we can come into the workplace. We’ll make sure an employee can understand and manage their rehab as well as looking at how jobs are affected by their problem.
If this isn’t possible, we have a network of physiotherapists who an employee can come along and see.
3. Functional capacity evaluation
It sounds fancy, but actually it’s really useful. Our functional capacity evaluation (FCE) lets us measure an employee’s ability to perform workplace tasks following long-term sickness absence. It will show if any specific needs are required and if any adjustments need to take place.
4. Job demand analysis
Our MSD team can study a job and see if an employee is up to performing their role without fear of injury.
5. Functional restoration programme
This is proven to work well for employees with long-term musculoskeletal injuries. Both physically and psychologically.
It’s a six week restoration programme where we help employees deal with psychological issues such as pain and fear, as well as helping them with any physical issues.
*Work-related Disorder (WRMSDs) Statistics, Great Britain, 2015, Health and Safety Executive.
We can also help employers with ergonomic strategies and assessments, such as:
Display Screen Equipment (DSE)
We can provide online DSE assessments, as well as certain medical assessments. If an employer prefers, we can also train individuals to be their own in-house assessors.
Car assessments
For some employees, their car is their workplace. We can make sure they’re sitting comfortably, loading and unloading correctly, and provide practical driving advice.
Manual handling training
We don’t think traditional manual handling training works. Instead, we carry out training on-site and on-the-job. Our hands-on approach means employees get a proper idea of the work they’ll be doing. Classroom time kept to a minimum.
We can also help employers with training for their own in-house manual handling trainer champions.
Guidance for ergonomic tools
We make sure businesses meet their HSE requirements, and can help employers with compliant risk assessment tools – like ART (Assessment of Repetitive Task), MAC (Manual Handling Assessment Chart) and RAPP (Risk Assessment Push Pull).
