Terrorism, natural disasters have similar national impacts

TONY PEARCE, Director-General of Emergency Management Australia

Natural disasters are as big an issue as terrorism in the national security context, says Tony Pearce, Director-General of Emergency Management Australia (EMA).

“Natural disasters have very similar impacts, on the economy, the psychology of the nation, on the business sector and on communities generally,” he says in an interview.

Mr Pearce, who is to address the National Security Australia 2009 conference in Sydney in March, says EMA has two roles in managing risks to the community and environment.

“We have the pre-emergency phase where we work with communities, governments, schools and others on identifying risks and developing strategies, publications and education programs to assist in reducing community risk . This also includes coordinating and administering the Australian Government funded Natural Disaster Mitigation Program.

“In the event of an emergency where a state or a territory needs assistance above it’s own capacity, we coordinate the Australian Government response to the emergency and work with the aeffected jurisdiction.”

One objective of EMA is to develop ‘community resilience’, “trying to get the community to a situation where it’s able to bounce back from adversity”.

“It means communities working with government in partnership. It’s the government working with the private sector and non-government organisations in a collective sense to have people understand their risk, to be able to deal with the event and once the issue’s past, to be able to recover from it.”

Mr Pearce says that in his address he will look at the concept of ‘all hazards’ emergency management — the terrorism event as well as natural disasters and the similarities.

“I want to look at the potential consequences of the future risks we’re facing, such as climate change and adapting to climate change and how that’s going to impact on Emergency Management’s response.

“I’ll also look at some lessons we’ve identified from recent events and the community resilience issue.”

www.nationalsecurityaus.com

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews at the National Security Australia 2009 conference please contact: Nigel Dique
Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819; nigel.dique@informa.com.au

Chronic pain management critical to retaining workers

Australian workers struggling to manage chronic pain need to regain control over their lives, says Coralie Wales, President of the Chronic Pain Association of Australia.

The good news is they can gain control with community help, she says in an interview.

CORALIE WALES, President of Chronic Pain Australia

One in five people suffer chronic pain – pain that’s experienced on a daily basis in excess of three to six months — and one in 10 will report that pain is interfering with their lives, which means it might be affecting their ability to work, says Ms Wales.

Also, research shows that the chemistry of stress can make the experience of pain from an injury worse, paving the way for the likelihood of chronic pain.

“We know that people stop going to work because of pain and are less effective at work,” she says.

Research shows that Australia loses five billion dollars every year in reduced work productivity due to chronic pain in workers — a big number given the ageing workforce and skills shortage

People aged between 35 and 55 years can have two or more chronic conditions. When they suffer an injury, the problem becomes complex.

“Managing that pain is really important and retaining those workers is critical because as a nation, we need those numbers in our work force.”

Ms Wales will be speaking at the Annual National Workers Compensation Conference on 23-26 February 2009 in Melbourne.

She will talk about how minor soft tissue injuries can lead to chronic pain and how clinicians and workers will benefit from an understanding of the physiology of chronic pain and how to deal with it.

She will also discuss the need to improve the level of control workers with chronic pain have over their lives.

“That means bringing them into the process and not excluding them from the process of planning in rehabilitation,” Ms Wales says.

“I’ll be touching on the fact that we can produce a circle around injured workers which makes them the leader, rather than the follower…and when we do that it really works, reducing a lot of the game playing that goes on in rehabilitation.”

Ms Wales says research shows the community can play a key role in workers getting back to a position of trusting after possibly years of feeling they haven’t had control because they haven’t trusted what has been going on in their lives in trying to manage pain.

The importance of community is the reason why Chronic Pain Australia exists.

“We’ve developed an organisation which is made up of volunteer consumers of pain management services, just ordinary people who have been through the experience and who have now become a model for other people, and it helps people trust the process of learning how to manage their pain,” she says.

Other speakers attending the conference include Martin Dolan, Chief Executive Officer for Comcare; Jarrod Moran, Workers Compensation Officer for Australian Council of Trade Unions; Dr Peter Tuchin, Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University; Craig Bosworth, Public & Industry Affairs Manager for Medibank Private; and Dr Angelica Vecchio-Sadus, HSE & Site Operations Manager at CSIRO Minerals.

www.nationalworkerscomp.com.au

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews please contact:

Nigel Dique
Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819; nigel.dique@informa.com.au