Injury Prevention

Employee Focus

Exercise Programs

Whether designing an aerobic exercise or strength training program, In Touch use leading edge scientific principles and evidence based techniques to maximise results. Our specific and graduated programs suit employees returning from injury and those who are simply looking to get into shape. Our enthusiastic and experienced staff will assist in implementing these into the daily routine of the workplace by engaging employees and with regular on-site classes.

Our programs will focus on improving employees’ strength, flexibility, balance, aerobic fitness and general health and wellbeing. Depending on your industry, our programmes are tailored to the specific job roles across all levels of the organisation. The health benefits of regular exercise have long been establish in the medical field and in-house exercise programmes have the added benefit of improving employee morale, productivity, engagement, as well as reducing time lost to illness, and other absences.

Warm-up / Stretching Classes

Just as an athlete can prevent injury with a proper warm-up and stretching program, workplace warm-up stretching programs can also reduce the risk of injury especially to the back, shoulders, arms, and wrists.

Warm-up stretching also has many other benefits including, endorphin release leading to a happier and more energetic workplace, increased productivity, and increased employee morale.

Our experienced therapists will take your staff through a short program of targeted exercises based on the precise demands of their jobs. Our exercises focus on warming up specific body segments as well as stretching to help minimise risk of injury.

In addition to supervising these classes, we strive to educate employees on the benefits of regular exercise and stretches throughout their work shift, during quiet periods and breaks, to help ward off aches and pains. These are further supported through ITP developed stretching and exercise posters at work stations and in meal rooms.

Employees across most industries will benefit from these types of programs both labour intensive workforces and sedentary computer based employees.

Functional Assessments / Physical Screening

This is designed to provide a baseline of the employee’s general condition and physical status, with respect to their specific job demands. As is the case with pre-employment screening, we are attempting to identify short-comings in an individual’s ability to perform their work tasks safely and from this, direct them towards relevant interventions to address these shortcomings. This can be carried out in many ways, and often a combination of these can be warranted: education sessions, on-site safety interaction, manual handling training, on-site physiotherapeutic treatment, and most importantly a functional strengthening or work hardening program.

Physiotherapy

ITP’s most significant success is delivered through its strong focus on proactive treatment rather than a reactive approach. Easy access to treatment leads to more voluntarily and earlier reporting of injuries. By providing an immediate diagnosis and treatment for the employee onsite, musculoskeletal complaints can be managed before they impact on an employee’s ability to work comfortably and safely and ultimately reduce lost time due to injury. This reduces the number of complaints that become workers compensation claims and will keep staff pain free and working at optimum levels, resulting in increased staff morale, reduced absenteeism and an increase in staff productivity.

Massage Therapy

Our team of therapists are trained and experienced across a range of massage techniques including, sports, Swedish, shiatsu. Our results speak for themselves with massage being an extremely popular pre-injury initiative. Our massage therapists work closely with our team of physiotherapists to achieve best results and increasingly employees are utilising our service to prevent the ‘niggle’ from becoming an injury and consequently a claim.

Our massage services yield high engagement results when provided on the shop floor and in the corporate environment as both groups are susceptible to physical strains and sprains. Our massage service addresses mental fatigue for all employee types with our programs enjoying success in boosting engagement levels, morale and productivity.

Diet and Lifestyle

Diet and lifestyle is the cornerstone of health. Our experts take the guessing out of what to eat and how to maintain a balanced lifestyle. We have assisted hundreds of employees maintain their optimum weight and body shape in addition to achieving sustainable cardiovascular improvements and energy levels throughout the day.

Task Focus

Job Dictionary / Task Analysis

Job Task Analysis (JTA) or physical demands assessment, involves an examination and breakdown of the skills and demands specific to a particular task or duties within the workplace. The assessment is conducted by a trained and experienced occupational therapist or physiotherapist.

To reduce low sample size error and provide the most accurate analysis of the tasks performed within your organisation our therapists will observe a number of your employees over a series of days measuring forces placed on the body, range of motion required at each key joint and repetition and frequency. Our analysis will build the function of the designated work from the ground up starting with individual task, then grouping tasks into duties and finally duties into the actual substantive role.

Our JTA’s present information in a clear concise format including a physical demands checklist and a description of the individual task including photographs. This information is easily accessible to all involved in the injury management process and will provide an essential tool for upgrading medical certificates or negotiating suitable duties which correspond to the worker’s functional capacity.

Furthermore, JTA’s are used to build pre-employment functional assessments and help employers and recruiters to match job candidates based on the physical demands of a job. They can also reduce the need for individual Work Site Assessments associated with a particular workers compensation claim, decreasing individual claim costs and time delays.

Ergonomics Assessments

Ergonomics is a key factor in an organisation’s health and safety profile. By ensuring your employees are more comfortable at work we can help lower stress and injury caused by awkward positions and repetitive tasks.

Through careful observation of the individual’s work furnishings, surroundings, temperature, light, equipment, duties, posture and mechanics, as well as other factors such as work flow, repetition of tasks and rest breaks, we strive provide a more thorough, practical and sustainable solution to the individual and workplace.

Our assessor will gain a history of the person’s symptoms and establish an understanding of the demands of their role. This information is then used to ensure that equipment and employee are correctly positioned to carry out the specific tasks. Our co-ordinated approach involves both management and operational staff to ensure the right ‘fit’ between the user and their task/environment.

In Touch partners with you in creating and implementing an effective and holistic workplace ergonomic program which can include: