Occupational health professional

This page is for staff who provide a workplace occupational health service to an organisation.

Occupational health providers have a particular role in working with individuals who are experiencing problems associated with work related stress and helping them either to remain at work or return to work successfully.

Your role in the Management Standards

• Acting as champion and or representing OH on a steering group.
• You have a critical role in helping with early identification and treatment and, onward referral and helping line managers with this. You could use your specialist knowledge to inform and train other key players in the organisation.
• You are outside the line management chain; individuals find the objectivity and confidentiality this brings reassuring, especially if the problem is in their line management chain of command.
• You are a focus in the organisation for health and related issues and can act as an important interface with, or conduit to, external specialists.
• You have a role in health promotion that is especially relevant in the area of work related stress.
• You will collect and analyse health and other statistics that will be useful for elaborating trends and patterns of ill health.

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Your role with individuals

• Mental health 'first-aid'.
• Advising line management about 'workability'.
• Expertise in case management.
• Support to individuals presenting with problems.
• Understanding of biology and manifestations that can be taught to others – trends, types of problems seen in your organisation – CPD on stress issues.
• Monitoring and surveillance of workplace health indicators that may be indicative of work related stress problems.