Work Health Safety Assessment for Disability Support Workers

This paper provides a risk assessment in a disability support work for overweight disable people. It identifies the hazards and risks that support workers face and suggests effective risk controls to mitigate the risks. The paper also discusses the vulnerable population and solutions for mitigating risks. It also provides information about the agency that governs work health safety and policies for maintaining a safe work environment.

Running head: WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
Risk assessment in disability support work:
In this assignment, Oncall has been chosen as the workplace. It provides home support
services (oncall.com.au, 2018). The paper will provide the risk assessment in a disability support
work. Risk and hazards will be identified that the support workers face in managing disable
people that are overweight.
Task or
scenario
Hazard/s Associated
harm, e.g.
what could go
wrong?
Existing
Risk
Controls
Curren
t risk
rating
Use the
Risk
Matrix
Any
additional
controls
are
required?
Residual
risk
rating
Use the
Risk
Matrix
Providing
force to
lift, move
or transfer
the people
that are
physically
disable
and
overweigh
t.
Musculoskelet
al injuries.
During
moving or
lifting the
disable
patients that
are overweight
could lead to
musculoskelet
al injuries due
to provide
excessive
force for
twisting,
In case of
person
that
requires
full
support
effective
equipment
is
available
for
moving or
lifting the
Very
high.
Using
overhead
tracking
hoist and
wheelchair
with
electric
motor
could be
used as the
additional
control. In
addition
Low

2WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
lifting,
pulling, and
pushing the
wheelchair
and other
moving
equipment.
wheelchai
r.
effective
training for
managing
the
equipment
is needed.
Providing
forceful
motion or
unexpecte
d move in
order to
prevent
the
patients
from
falling.
Risk of fall. High risk of
falls is
associated
with the task
such as
preventing the
patients from
fall, thus the
support
workers might
got minor to
severe injury
such as
fracture in
hand, leg and
hip. The
Equipmen
t such as
walker,
wheelchai
r and
others are
available
to support
the disable
people to
move and
reduce the
risk of
fall.
Very
high.
Man
oeuvre
need to be
easy to use
and alarm
clock need
to be
placed in
the bed or
wheelchair
to reduce
the risk of
fall.
Moderat
e.

3WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
support
worker might
got brain
injury in some
severe cases
such as fall in
bathroom.
Working
in an
awkward
position
for a long
period of
time in
order to
support
the patient
in dressing
or
undressing
and taking
meal.
Strains in
many parts of
body.
The support
workers might
suffer from
strains in
many body
parts such as
strains in
neck, back and
shoulders.
Equipmen
t such as
electric
stand
chair,
electric hi-
lo bed.
Leg lifter
and
standing
hoist for
lifting or
supporting
a person
in
standing
High. Mobile
sling hoist
in order to
transfer or
move the
patient and
height
adjustable
ergonomic
chair and
proper
training for
equipment
manageme
nt could
help to
Low.

4WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
position is
available
to reduce
the effort
of the
support
worker.
provide
additional
control.
Vulnerable population and solution for mitigating risks:
In a diverse workplace female home support workers or disability support workers are
found to be most vulnerable group. The risk of falls, musculoskeletal injury and strains in body
parts is high in case of female disability support workers. It has been found that risk of injury
during providing force to move, lift or transfer the disable patient from one place to another the
female support workers are associated with high risk of unexpected injury. The risk of
underlying injuries is very high for the female workers due to their physical anatomy (Vassos et
al., 2013). In addition of the risks it has been found that training for equipment management is
important for female disability support workers, however, most of the female workers do not
attend or complete the training thus remain untrained and face enormous health and safety
hazards in the workplace (Wark, Hussain & Edwards, 2014).
In order to reduce the risk of harm in the disability support work for female workers,
effective equipment need to be provided to the workers, for example, electric wheelchair,
overhead tracking hoist, Mobile sling hoist, electric stand chair, electric hi-lo bed, adjustable

5WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
ergonomic chair and others. Such equipment would help to reduce the effort of the female
workers in moving, lifting and transferring the patients from one place to another. Provide two
support workers in case of patients that need full support for movement could be helpful (Harries
et al., 2015). Proper training need to provided and before joining the training the information
regarding the importance of training needs to be provided to the workers and the training process
need to be updated regularly(Wark, Hussain & Edwards, 2014). Such strategies could help to
minimize the risk associated with female support workers and improve health and safety in the
workplace in an effective manner.
Agency that governs work health safety and policies for maintain safe work environment:
One of the agencies that govern the work health safety in the workplace in Australia is
Safe Work Australia. The agency is a statutory agency of Australian Government that was
established in the year 2009. The Safe work Australia made of state of territory and government,
representatives of Commonwealth, The Australian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, The
Australian Council of Trades Unions and the Australian Industry Group. The agency works with
the state and territory government and the Commonwealth in order to improve the compensation
arrangements of workers and improve the health and safety culture in the workplace. It is a not a
regulator of work health and safety but a national policy body. The responsible authority for
enforcing and regulating work health and safety laws in the jurisdiction of Australia is the
Commonwealth, state and territories. The Safe Work Australia provides effective code of
practice that provides guidelines to manage work health safety in an effective manner. The
approved code of practice is a guideline to achieve the standards of safety and welfare in the
workplace. The code of practice provided by the Safe Work Australia is applicable for all people
that has duty of care according to the circumstances mentioned in the code. In most of the cases

6WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
the approved code of practice achieves compliance with the health and safety duties mentioned
in the Work Health Safety Act. The code of practice provided by the Safe Work Australia deal
with some significant issues and does not consider all the hazards and risks that may arise in the
workplace. It has been developed under the Council of Australian Governments’ Inter-
Governmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Occupational Health and
Safety in order to adapt by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments
(worksafe.vic.gov.au, 2018).
One of the most effective policies for work health safety includes the Work health safety
act, 2011. The main purpose of the act is to provide an effective and maintained framework to
ensure the health and safety of the workers in the workplace. The framework includes-
 Provide protection to the workers and other people in the workplace against the
harm to their health, welfare and safety by eliminating or diminishing the risk
factors arising in the workplace.
 Providing effective and fair workplace culture and representation, cooperation and
resolution of issues in the workplace related to health and safety factor.
 Inspiring the workers and the employers to promote the importance and
improvement of work health safety in order to achieve healthier working
environment.
 Providing adequate knowledge to the workers and the employers regarding the
work health and safety.
By providing such guidelines the act helps to improve the work health and safety in the
workplace and reduce the risk of hazards and risks in an effective manner (worksafe.qld.gov.au,
2018).

7WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
Summarization of the health safety assessment:
There are a number of risks associated with the people that works as a disability support
worker. One of the most important risk to consider is the musculoskeletal injuries during
providing excessive force to transfer, lift or move the person that are physically disable and
overweight. During such task the, due to providing excessive force the support workers might
got musculoskeletal injuries and could suffer from long term pain. The current risk rating of such
risk is very high (Smyth, Healy & Lydon, 2015). Some effective risk controls are available such
as equipment for moving or lifting the wheelchair to reduce the effort of the support workers. In
addition modified equipment such as overhead tracking hoist and wheelchair with electric motor
could be used to reduce the risk in an effective manner. The support workers need to be trained
for using the equipment properly (Wark, Hussain & Edwards, 2014).
Another hazard is related to providing forceful motion or unexpected move in order to
prevent the patients from falling. High risk of fall is associated with such task. In this case the
support might got minor to severe injuries such as fractures in hand, leg and hip. In some severe
cases major brain injury could occur, for example fall in bathroom (McCaughey et al., 2013).
Effective assessment tools such as walker, wheelchair, and walking stick is available for helping
the patent in movement and reducing the risk of fall. However, additional control such as easily
usable man-oeuvre is needed. Alarm clock need to be placed with the patient or in the wheelchair
or bed in order to reduce the risk of fall and effective training program need to be arranged for
the support workers to train them about the proper use of such equipment (Wark, Hussain &
Edwards, 2014). In current situation the risk rate is high, it is expected that after implementing
additional controls the risk could be reduced.

8WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
It has been found in the risk assessment that working in an uncomfortable position for
long hours for example during support the patient in taking meal, dressing or bathing could lead
to strains of neck, back and shoulders and the support workers might suffer from unnecessary
pain (McCaughey et al., 2013). To reduce the risk electric stand chair, electric hi-lo bed, leg
lifter, standing hoist for supporting the patient in standing position is available. Furthermore,
height adjustable ergonomic chair for the support workers and mobile sling hoist to transfer or
move the patient could help to reduce the risk in an effective manner (Harries et al., 2015).

9WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
References:
Harries, J., Ng, K. Y. Y., Wilson, L., Kirby, N., & Ford, J. (2015). Evaluation of the work safety
and psychosocial wellbeing of disability support workers. The Australasian Journal of
Organisational Psychology, 8.
McCaughey, D., DelliFraine, J. L., McGhan, G., & Bruning, N. S. (2013). The negative effects
of workplace injury and illness on workplace safety climate perceptions and health care
worker outcomes. Safety science, 51(1), 138-147.
oncall.com.au (2018). ONCALL | Disability, NDIS & Welfare Services Melbourne. Retrieved
from https://www.oncall.com.au/
Smyth, E., Healy, O., & Lydon, S. (2015). An analysis of stress, burnout, and work commitment
among disability support staff in the UK. Research in developmental disabilities, 47, 297-
305.
Vassos, M., Nankervis, K., Skerry, T., & Lante, K. (2013). Work engagement and job burnout
within the disability support worker population. Research in developmental
disabilities, 34(11), 3884-3895.
Wark, S., Hussain, R., & Edwards, H. (2014). The training needs of staff supporting individuals
ageing with intellectual disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual
Disabilities, 27(3), 273-288.
worksafe.qld.gov.au (2018). Work Health and Safety Act 2011. Retrieved from
https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/laws-and-compliance/workplace-health-and-safety-
laws/laws-and-legislation/work-health-and-safety-act-2011

10WORK HEALTH SAFETY ASSESSMENT
worksafe.vic.gov.au (2018). Disability services - WorkSafe. Retrieved from
https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/disability-services