16.3.1 Occupational Health As A Speciality Flashcards
What is Occupational Health
Occupational health is an area of work in public health to promote and maintain highest degree of physical, mental, and social well-being of workers in all occupations.
WHO/ILO shared definition for occupational health
The focus in occupational health is on three different objectives:
- The maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity;
- The improvement of working conditions and the working environment to become conducive to safety and health;
- The development of work organization and working cultures to improve occupational safety and health.
NB Multidisciplinary team of occupational health
- occupational medicine
- occupational therapy
- occupational hygiene
- occupational psychology
- ergonomics
- occupational health nursing
OH doctors
- OH doctors are concerned with the relationship between work and health.
- Focus on prevention and management of work-related health issues
Assess:
- impact of health on work
- impact of work on health
NB Occupational injury vs Occupational disease
Occupational injury
- Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA)
- “occupational injury” means a personal injury sustained as a result of an accident
- e.g Needle stick injury
Occupational disease
- disease or disorder that is caused by the work or working conditions
- the disease must have developed due to exposure to workplace hazards and the correlation between the exposures and the disease is well-known in medical research
- e.g noice induced hearing loss
NB Social determinants of health
- Non-medical factors that influence health outcomes
- The conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age
- The wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.
- Research shows that social determinants can be more important than health care or lifestyle choices in influencing health
- The contribution of sectors outside health to population health outcomes exceeds the contribution from the health sector.
Slide 19
Time spent at work
- the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime
- Approximately 1/3 lifetime
- Doctors probably more…
Work as determinant of health
- Good work = work that provides meaningful, safe, and fulfilling employment
- evidence shows that appropriate work is good for health
Work as SDH - Vulnerable Workings
NB Definition
- eg. Mine workers, women working, older workers, pregnant workers
- found mostly in lower and middle income country
International Labour Organization
- While there is no generally accepted definition of “vulnerable worker”, the term is often used to refer to
- those for whom employment is precarious, poorly paid and sometimes dangerous, and who often suffer from some form of discrimination.
- They are not restricted to one particular employment sector or group, though they often work in the informal economy.
- Vulnerable workers are also not confined to one country or region but are to be found in both developing and industrialized countries worldwide.
Examples
- Migrant workers
- Lone working
- Disability at work
- Pregnant workers and new mothers
- Older workers
- Gig economy, ageing and temporary workers
Fitness for work assessment
Definition
NB Examples
- A medical assessment of fitness for work aims to ensure that an employee is fit to perform the task involved effectively and without risk to their own or others’ health and safety.
Examples
- Pre-employment medical
- Work-specific medical assessments (pilots, diver)
➡️Aviation medical examination in a pilot
- Medical assessment before returning to work after prolonged sick leave
Examples
- someone who faints and is a truck driver
- psychiatric episodes in medical field
- surgeon with parkingsons
- referee with poor eye sight
Disability
- The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) defines disability as an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. ICF considers the environmental and personal factors that interact with all these components. Impairment is defined as a problem in body function or structure. It relates to a medical diagnosis
- Diagram Slide 28 (Also for assignment)
NB WHO-ICF model disability
Slide 29
Work disability
Def: Work disability refers to contexts where disability and being unfit for work overlap
- When conducting a disability assessment in the context of OH, the specific focus is on disability in relation to work (work disability)
- relates to participation in society + relates to the inability to work because of a medical condition
- temporary vs permanent work disability
- The core understanding of work disability remains aligned with the ICF framework Apply ICF framework within the context of work
- interaction between: medical condition, function and contextual factors (ICF)
Slide 30
Why is managing work disability important?
- Alongside relieving suffering and prolonging life, an important objective of medical treatment in working-aged adults is to return the patient to good function, including work
- Good work is good for health
- Work forms a large part of most people’s lives and allows full participation in society, boosting confidence and self- esteem.
- The patient’s condition should be interpreted in functional terms and in the context of the job requirements.
- Unemployment causes poor health and health inequalities, even after adjustment for social class, poverty, age, and pre-existing morbidity.
- A person signed off work who is sick for 6 months has only a 50% chance of returning to work, falling to 25% at 1 year and 10% at 2 years.
- Most importantly, regaining work may reverse these adverse health effects and re- entry into work leads to an improvement in health.
United nation system
- Specialised UN Agencies Relevant to OH:
➡️ International Labour Organization
➡️ World health organisation - Collaborate to promote and improve occupational health (OH) worldwide
- international standards
WHO
- The United Nations agency working to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.
International labour organisation
- Sets international labour standards, develops policies and devises programmes promoting decent work for all women and men
- Assist countries through social dialogue and technical assistance in applying international standards
- they don’t have the power to enforce laws in a country but can give guidelines to country to ensure better health
- uses 17 sustainable development goals
- set the global agenda for world of work
