On Tuesday night Defence Housing Australia took home the trophy from the 2016 Comcare Work, Health and Safety Awards held at the National Convention Centre.
DHA’s First Response Program was a joint winner in Category 1 – the Prevention Award with the Change Management Toolkit from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
It was the first time DHA had been nominated as a finalist at the awards, which are part of Comcare’s 2016 National Conference.
DHA Acting Managing Director, Jan Mason, said the award was a credit to the hard work of staff who created the First Response Program.
‘Every employee has the right to feel safe while at work. Investing in the safety of DHA’s greatest asset, our staff, was an easy decision.’
DHA National Manager Safety, Health, Environment and Quality, Chelsea Cook, accepted the award from Comcare CEO Jennifer Taylor.
‘Safety leadership starts at the top. For the First Response Program to become a success it was very important to have that support,’ she said.
The First Response Program was launched at DHA in 2014 to address the risks of staff completing field work alone.
As part of the program DHA field workers were required to completed risk management de-escalation training and risk assessment eLearning modules. The duress devices known as SafeTCards were then rolled-out across DHA.
Training staff was a major element of the program to teach staff about risks they may encounter when working in the field while also learning about the practical nature of SafeTCards as communication devices.
SafeTCards have now become a part of the uniform of DHA field workers, designed to easily fit in ID card holders. The regional offices of DHA have also been highly engaged with the program with staff designing docking stations to charge the SafeTCards.
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