Safety Matters

As National Sun Safety Week comes to a close, we're keeping health at the forefront of our summer plans.

As summer approaches, it’s the perfect opportunity to start getting your home or cottage ready for summer. Whether that means decluttering the closets, deep-cleaning the floors or tidying up loose odds and ends, there are ways to make sure your house gets cleaned the safe way.

It takes a team to catch on to new safety procedures and make them stick. But at Seaview Manor, a long-term care facility in Glace Bay, it wasn’t just about the catch – they took the ball and ran with it.

Have you ever gone to see a client and been faced with excess clutter in the main entranceway? Or spent time communicating about the care task you are going to initiate, only to find that they don’t have their hearing aid in? Or yesterday, when you were able to support a client with minimal assistance, but today they can’t even sit up in bed?

On June 19, representatives from the Workers’ Compensation Board, Workers’ Advisers Program, Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal, and the Department of Labour and Advanced Education took part in the Workplace Safety and Insurance System Annual Meeting.

Development of the action plan for the health and community services sectors has hit a milestone. After months of research, best practice review, and consultations, the latest phase of the project – working groups – has concluded. To mark this significant engagement with project stakeholders, a symposium was held.

Ticks are a risk throughout most of the year, feeding whenever temperatures rise above 4 degrees Celsius. In the summer, however, larvae and nymphs become more active. This, coupled with heavier foliage in wooded areas and spending more time outdoors, mean humans are at an increased risk for contracting Lyme disease.

When it comes to potential risks in the workplace, dogs aren’t often the first hazard to come to mind. Yet, many jobs require that workers know how to safely deal with animals, both wild and domestic.

Nestled in the meadows surrounding the base of North Mountain in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, the Annapolis County Municipal Housing Corporation (ACMHC) is an idyllic scene of tranquility and respite. But don’t let the rustic setting fool you – while Mountain Lea Lodge and the Meadows ARC certainly evoke feelings of simplicity and lightheartedness, the organization is at the forefront of progressive workplace safety strategies that are changing the way residential care is provided.