The training process occupies a special place as it is one of the primary ways to eliminate accidents, injuries, and even death at work. With the right knowledge and skills, employees of an organization can work safely and minimize workplace accidents, in addition to meeting legal requirements.
Mental Health First Aid and IOSH Working Safely
IOSH Working Safely can thus be said to enhance mental health first aid training because it caters to the psychological side of safety at the workplace. While IOSH Working Safely emphasizes both physical and biological aspects of health and safety, including risk assessment and hazard identification, mental health first aid training equips employees with the necessary tools and skills to deal with a person experiencing a mental health problem. Minimizing casualty is therefore achieved by addressing safety in two aspects: workers’ physical and psychological safety. Thus, organizations must include mental health first aid as a part of safety training to ensure that employees are well equipped to handle issues that may arise, promoting higher productivity in organizations.
Physical Safety Training
Physical safety training is very basic, and it informs employees of dangers, safe ways of handling certain tools/equipment, and emergencies. This kind of training involves matters such as fire fighting, lifting loads, PPE, and first aid, amongst others.
This training helps employees become familiar with policy shifts and changes that occur from time to time or are influenced by new legislation on workplace safety measures. Furthermore, proper training is helpful because it repeatedly reminds the workforce of safety issues, and they become habitual. This is especially so in areas such as construction sites, chemical plants, and other industries, where a slight mistake could create devastating effects.
Mental Health Training
Today, HSE training programs ensure the protection of both employees’ physical and mental health, although the recognition of the necessity of the latter has been extended only in recent years. A mental health first aid course is essential to prepare employees to anticipate stressors, identify symptoms of Mental Health disorders in themselves and other people, and get the correct help. It also advises managers on how they should enhance the work environment to alter the social paradigm linked to mental health issues. Training should be conducted frequently since mental health is interrelated with physical health, as people’s behavior reflects the levels of security an organization provides. For example, employees with stress or depression may have poor concentration or poor decision-making ability, which leads to increased carelessness that causes accidents.
Importance of Regular Training
Training employees on physical safety and mental health issues requires frequent training. This helps employees repeat safety and mental health information throughout the organization to prevent accidents and improve everyone’s health. Training sessions also help the employees, as they can either revise what they have learned earlier or learn new things and talk about new safety issues that may arise. This is critical, especially given the emerging and evolving challenges that characterize workplaces today, like the introduction of new technologies or alterations in the working environment.
Final Thoughts
Workplace training is a critical component of safety, simple safety, and well-being. Recurrent training showcases that safety practices are current on the employees’ radar and are a continuous reminder of the program. Mental health first aid, when associated with IOSH Working Safety, enhances organizational procedures and guarantees optimal results in enhancing employees’ safety and well-being.
