Association of Safety Professionals Offers Seminar on Total Worker Health
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| Seminarfest 2019, January 24-31, 2019 |
November 20, 2018 - Workplace safety professionals from all industries learn at the American Society of Safety Professionals’ (ASSP) Seminarfest 2019 in Las Vegas, January 24-31, 2019.
This year, attendees can learn why the Total Worker Health model developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is the way of the future.
“The Total Worker Health approach can help break down organizational silos and foster a more holistic view of employee well being,” said ASSP Senior Vice President Deborah Roy, corporate director of health, safety, and wellness at L.L.Bean.
Roy will lead a session on Total Worker Health at the event.
Traditional occupational safety and health protection programs have concentrated on ensuring that workers are protected from the harms that arise from work itself.
Total Worker Health builds on this approach by recognizing that job-related factors such as wages, hours of work, workload, stress, interactions with coworkers, and access to paid leave can all affect the well-being of workers, their families, and their communities.
Risk factors in the workplace can contribute to health problems previously considered unrelated to work, such as abnormal weight fluctuations, sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, and depression.
“Safety professionals need to understand that Total Worker Health is a more comprehensive view of what they do,” Roy said. “It’s important to focus on the broader mission and what can be done to positively impact a worker’s overall well-being.”
According to Roy, one of the most important aspects of Total Worker Health is its emphasis on collaboration and coordination. Depending on the organizational structure, it’s possible that safety professionals, human resource managers, and occupational health professionals are not interacting on a regular basis.
“If you’re in a large organization and you’re siloed and don’t talk to each other, then you don’t see opportunities,” Roy said. “You need to integrate with other areas of the business to effectively collaborate and develop a plan.”
Seminarfest 2019 features more than 90 courses from 40 expert facilitators, covering the industry’s most relevant topics. Sessions are organized by experience level and nine industry tracks. The full-day course format allows attendees to gain in-depth knowledge on a specific topic, which is a different approach than typical conferences that feature shorter presentations.
Attendees also interact face-to-face with hundreds of safety professionals in expanding their network of contacts who share their passion for finding solutions to safety and health challenges. Many safety professionals take significant steps after Seminarfest because they are empowered to achieve their professional goals.
The event offers six certificate programs, including the Managed Fall Protection Certificate Program, to help safety professionals advance their careers and receive recognition for their expertise. Attendees can also earn up to 5.6 continuing education units (CEUs) across the full eight-day program and prepare for certification exams that lead to industry-preferred designations such as CSP, ASP, CHST and SMS.
Safety professionals can learn more about Seminarfest 2019 educational opportunities by visiting http://seminarfest.assp.org.
