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The Ecology of Work-Related Injury and Illness in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2016

James A Athanasou Open the ORCID record for James A Athanasou [Opens in a new window]
James A Athanasou*
Affiliation:
Discipline of Rehabilitation Counselling, Faculty of Health Science, University of Sydney, 75 East Street, LIDCOMBE NSW 2141, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: James A Athanasou, Faculty of Health Sciences, 75 East Street, LIDCOMBE NSW 2141, Australia. E-mail: james.athanasou@sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the context of injury and its consequences for the vocational rehabilitation of Australian workers. This report was derived from a secondary analysis of the seventh national survey of Work-Related Injuries by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is a stratified, random, multiple household survey of 42,100 private dwellings. Work-related injury affects 1 in every 25 of those who had worked at some time in the last 12 months. There were high probabilities of a workplace injury for those in labouring-type jobs and workers who exceeded 35–39 hours per week. Occupational injury is heterogeneous in nature and but there is clearly a restriction in the range of clientele encountered in rehabilitation. A second implication for professional rehabilitation arises from the type of injury. Work-related injuries in Australia are dominated overwhelmingly by musculoskeletal conditions. Work-related injury is a major cause of disability and there are consistently large numbers of people each year that will be requiring some vocational rehabilitation services.

Keywords

occupational injuryworkplace accidentswork-related injurywork-related illnessvocational rehabilitationrehabilitation counselling
Type
Professional or Policy issue Papers
Information
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , July 2016 , pp. 1 - 12
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016 

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