AN EXPLORATION OF A HEALTH RELATED AGENCY

An Exploration Of A Health Related Agency

An Exploration Of A Health Related Agency

Introduction

Health and safety is that aspect of human resource management concerned with identifying hazards and risks to health within work processes and taking steps to minimize or remove those risks. Given its importance and given the fact that there may be financial and operational pressures on managers to neglect health and safety, it is an area of the employment relationship that is closely regulated by law. The European Union has adopted a series of directives on health and safety, while in the UK the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, with its associated health and safety regulations, provides a legal framework to guide management action.

Significantly, health and safety law provides for the appointment of both safety representatives and health and safety inspectors to ensure that the law is adhered to and that companies develop good practice in health and safety management. Despite regulation, workplace death continues to be a feature of hazardous industries, such as fishing, agriculture, and construction, and workplace injury and disease are major problems that blight the lives of thousands of workers and impose a heavy cost on business.

Job stress, repetitive strain injury, and workplace violence are among the issues that have come to the fore in health and safety management in recent years. In the UK, the Health and Safety Commission and its operational arm, the Health and Safety Executive, have overall responsibility for monitoring and improving health and safety at work. (Wright 2007: 69-74)

Health promotion is about keeping healthy, living a healthy lifestyle, preventing illness, and preventing any existing illness from becoming worse. Within the United Kingdom (UK), health professional practice in promoting health is far from new with examples of specific outreach services for men now dating back over twenty years. However, it continues to be articulated that male health is a cause for concern and, in particular, that men are a hard group to reach and poor users of mainstream health promotion services.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration interviews a younger population of persons age 12 and older.

According to this survey, in 1997 an estimated 64 million Americans age 12 and older were current smokers, or 30% of this population. Among youths age 12-17, females had a higher rate of smoking (20.7 percent) than males (19.1 percent).

Research indicates that a strong association exists between tobacco use and the use of alcohol and other drugs. The prevalence of alcohol and illicit drug use is greater among smokers than non-smokers.

The nature of the association between nicotine and other drug use is not fully understood and an area of continuing research. One research team suggests links between alcohol and smoking may be due to situational association, interaction effects between two drugs, or characteristics of individuals that may predispose to both drugs of abuse.

Among alcohol and drug dependent populations, the rate of smoking ranges from 71% ...