Injury Prevention

At HIPA we take an extremely active approach to preventing injuries onsite and at home. This is achieved by looking at the individual as a whole rather than only one or 2 specific areas of an individual. Many factors can lead usually in combination to workers becoming injured whether that be at work or at home. The overall physical, mental and social health of a worker plays a pivotal role in determining whether a worker will experience an injury or not with more significant contributing factors often leading to more severe injuries and longer prognosis.

Similar to the elite sport setting we look at all aspects of a workers health and wellness profile to reduce injury risk. From assessing their risk from prior to their employment through to their site specific occupational demands as well as their own individual factors and provide strategies to help reduce risks in many of these areas. We analyse the risks of injury not just at the WORKSITE level but at the WORKER level which is the approach many high level physiotherapists and coaches utilize in the elite setting. This is not limited to simply modifying work tasks and training someone in correct manual handling but also encompasses looking at an individuals cardiovascular health, their strength, their flexibility, their stress levels, their relationships, their hydration, their nutrition, their sleep, their education and their beliefs.

Ultimately we aim to change the culture of the entire workplace to have a proactive and preventative mindset when it comes to not only their own health and wellbeing but that of the entire team around them

From our extensive experience in Physiotherapy, Strength & Conditioning, Biomechanics and Workplace Health Promotion, HIPA understand the significant role in which manual handling can cause risks to both the Employer and Employee.

Our Staff are trained in all manual handling environments, ranging from office based tasks to heavy industry occupations. Using specific Risk Assessment tools, HIPA can help evaluate Risk Assessments at workplaces and help develop control measures to help minimise risk.

Collaborating directly with the Occupational Health and Safety Department, policies, procedures and equipment can be altered if there are any significant risks which are identified during the analysis to help mitigate or even eliminate these risks.

Pre-Employment Screenings ensure prospective employees entering the workforce are able to cope with the rigours and demands of that workplace and

Often, unsuitable candidates are selected to join a manual workforce, without having appropriate physical capacity, training and/or education to complete daily work tasks. This often results in musculoskeletal injuries to workers followed by Workcover claims and Return to Work Plans that could easily have been avoided. This all adds financial stress and places administrative burdens on the employer which can be prevented by conducting proper Pre-Employment Screenings.

We use an objective functional assessment that grades of the prospective worker’s ability to complete essential demands of the job tasks completed at your workplace. Our assessments are tailored to each individual workplace and the job roles that you are employing for to ensure that the people applying for roles know exactly what movements and actions are required before they even start (if they are successful).

HIPA Pre-Employment Screenings include a detailed current and relevant past history of the worker.

It also consists of a detailed objective assessment reviewing not only strength but flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, screening tests for existing musculoskeletal injuries as well as the manual handling abilities of the prospective employee in job tasks onsite for the prospective role. Each component is graded to give a numerical rating that allows you to compare worker to worker differences objectively, similar to how teams are selected based on their performance in elite sport.

Benefits for the Employer include: