Book your free Safety Advocate visit!
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is taking bookings again for Safety Advocate visits to your business to remind your everyone why it’s important to work safely.
The advocates each have a different and powerful story to share that will inspire your workers to think long and hard about what can happen if safety is overlooked.
In 2019, our advocates gave 330 talks to more than 17,000 people. They travelled to large and small workplaces all over the state—town and country, rural and regional—making visits north to Smithfield, west to Isisford and south to Coolangatta. The advocates are available all year round and visit at no charge to Queensland businesses.
This year, with flood clean ups putting asbestos safety in the news, why not have Julie and Don Sager visit to talk about making safety a guiding principle when working with asbestos.
Julie and Don’s son, Adam was unknowingly exposed to asbestos dust when he was 18 months old and at 24 he first developed symptoms of the asbestos disease, mesothelioma. He died just 10 months later. The Sagers are committed to raising awareness of the dangers of disturbing asbestos without adequate precautions, in the hope of sparing other families from going through what they had to endure.
If you work on the land, you may be keen to meet our newest advocate, Robyn Neilson. Robyn, a trained nurse, was the first responder to her neighbour who suffered horrific injuries after her arms caught in a post-hole digger on a remote cattle property. For two hours, Robyn gave life-saving care to keep her neighbour alive until the Royal Flying Doctor Service arrived. After the incident, Robyn was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Now Robyn promotes the importance of preparing for the worst by having emergency plans and first aid equipment in place. She also talks about why it’s critical workplaces use well-designed, guarded, and properly maintained equipment, and how exposure to traumatic workplace incidents can psychologically affect workers, first responders, and their families, as well as the importance of accessing resources if you need support.
No matter what industry, all our advocates have inspiring stories to tell about working safely and exactly how workplace incidents impact on workers, their families and communities.