BackCare

Under the DDA 1995, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a disabled person by treating them less favourably than anyone else for a reason connected to their disability (unless this can be justified), or by failing to make reasonable adjustments. This applies to all employers, except for the armed forces.

Although back pain can have a big impact on work, in most cases the pain is not caused by work. Irrespective of what caused back pain in the first instance, it is important to think about controlling back pain in your organisation. Fortunately there are a number of measures you can take to reduce the chances of back pain becoming a real problem in your organisation.

There is general consensus that employment is good for someone’s health and being out of work is often detrimental to one’s health and well-being. This suggests that assisting a patient with back pain to seek employment may have a positive impact on their health.

Traditionally back pain has often been associated with certain activities such as repetitive heavy lifting, bending and awkward postures. These factors certainly play a role and simple measures can reduce these risk factors. However there are also others factors that you may not directly associate with your back but have proven to be very important in keeping persons with back pain at work.

Employment and Support Allowance offers financial help and personalised support for new customers unable to work due to illness or disability. It provides access to a specially trained personal adviser and a wide range of further services designed to help individuals move into suitable work, if and when they are able.

While back pain can have a large impact on someone’s ability to do a certain job, it is important to realise that in most cases back pain is not caused by work. However irrespective of what caused the pain, it is very crucial to find ways of dealing with back pain.

Lifting objects is part of our daily life and fortunately the strength of your back and the rest of your body allows you to do this. However, lifting (or manual handling as it is often called) is also a common cause of back pain. In order to prevent back pain it is best to lift with care and not to lift more than you can easily handle.

These benefits are not only important to you as an employee, but also to your employer. After all a healthy and happy employee is of much more value than an unmotivated employee. It is therefore important to realise that you are not on your own when you are trying to cope with back pain at work. There is a whole list of people who want to see you at work, not only because they care about you, but also because there are a number of benefits for them in doing this.