Miller Health, occupational health and fitness

WorkHealth, Fitness and Wellbeing	Healthy people, healthy workplace
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REHAB

We're serious about workplace injuries.

Our aim is to have an injury free work place.

In most organisations, musculo-skeletal injuries make up the bulk of workers' compensation claims. They account for the largest number of days off work and are the biggest expenditure item in the OH&S budget.

As a largely office based organisation we believe that with good OHFW management we should have an injury free workforce. Because of our OH&S firewall strategy claims should be negligible.

Our return to work record should achieve best practice with our recovery rates being the best in Victoria. We will not allow injured people to become trapped in a medical and vortex. We will require them to be actively involved in the rehab process based on the Formula 1 philosophy.

On the few occasions when people become injured in our workplace, the Victorian Workcover Authority will take a leading role in the management of workers' compensation claims and provide oversight to the rehabilitation process.

Because of our injury risk management strategy the risk of people being injured in our workplace is minimal.

The four key drivers of our injury management strategy are: -

1.	We're serious about safety. We have a safe working environment.

2.	We have a systematic health, fitness and wellbeing seminar and assessment program.

3.	We're serious about our prehab program, a program that nips dysfunctions in the bud and prevents them from being transferred into the injury bucket.

4.	We are pro-active in managing the rehabilitation process. We will require people with musculo-skeletal injuries to be involved in a Formula 1-type rehabilitation program.

FORMULA 1 REHABILITATION WORK CONDITIONING PROGRAM

Just as the technological spin off from Formula 1 motor racing has improved the standard of the motor cars we drive, so does the spin off from sports medicine have the potential to dramatically speed up the recovery process for people suffering from musculo-skeletal dysfunction and injury.

Most sports people move heaven and earth to speed up the recovery process, using an intensive regime of treatment modalities.

On the other hand, traditional injury management in corporate organisations is restricted to a rub down and a crunch a couple of time a week, the rest of the time being spent on the couch. People don't get better, or if they do, they get better slowly.

The treatment they have had or are having has not worked to restore normal function, principally because it

¡	is not sufficiently regular or intensive

¡	is reliant on other people prescribing something (usually an anti inflammatory tablet) or doing something (usually a hot blanket and a rub down) to the injured person, rather than the person doing something for themselves

¡	doesn't contain the deep postural aligning strength and flexibility exercises that people need to do themselves.

THE SOLUTION

We involve injured people in our Formula 1 Rehabilitation program.

Just as rehab for sports people is a full time job, so rehab for injured and dysfunctional employees is a full time job. The aim is to speed up the rehab process.

The program involves a wide range of therapeutic modalities.

It works on the principal that whilst therapy may speed up the rehab process it doesn't take the place of the strength and flexibility exercises you need to do for yourself.

It involves people actively involved in the process of restoring poor function to good in the shortest possible time; in getting themselves fit, healthy, strong and flexible.

FORMULA 1 REHAB PRINCIPLES

¡	Form follows function. ie muscles do what bones tell them to do. Therefore, muscles doing their job properly will lead to better skeletal alignment.

¡	Use a wide range of modalities including a number that you have to do yourself. In particular this means ▪ deep postural alignment ▪ stretching and strengthening ▪ general exercise.

¡	Make the treatment regular, systematic and intensive. It's a full time job, 8 hours a day. (Many of the people we see for musculo-skeletal rehabilitation have done less in a year than an elite athlete would do in a week.) Formula 1 Rehabilitation is a full time job.

¡	It is frequently the case that the cause of the pain is not located at the site of the pain. This means you will have to work on more than one part of your body if you want to get better quickly.

¡	Look for the underlying cause of your dysfunction. The camel's back may have been broken by a 'straw' (a workplace incident of some sort) but the back has been waiting for years for the straw to lob on it. It is usually poor posture, lack of strength and lack of flexibility, the things you are responsible for! It is frequently the case that injuries don't respond to treatment because the body is still out of alignment.

	Keeping fit is an investment. If you're serious about getting better quickly be prepared to make an investment. Fit and healthy people make a regular investment in their own time, effort and money to keep fit and healthy. To get better quickly you'll have to do the same. We believe the full time job of a person on workers' compensation is a Formula 1 Rehabilitation work conditioning program.

	You can do more to keep your body in good shape than any therapist. The US Surgeon General said in 1979, 'You, the individual can do more for your own health and wellbeing than any doctor, any hospital, and drug, any exotic medical advice.'

The success of the program is based on the premise that 'It is a big ask expecting your body to get better by having someone do something to you. Sooner or later you have to do something to yourself.'

THE PROGRAM

Participants attend a Formula 1 Rehab rehab centre on a daily basis for general fitness, strength and flexibility training sessions; for hydrotherapy.

If they require other therapeutic modalities these are also conducted on a daily basis, all designed to speed up the rehab process.

However, the over-riding emphasis is doing something for yourself and doing it intensively. This is a program that is inexpensive to run. It can be managed, and run by OH&F staff with fitness practitioner qualifications.