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#1 Posted : 19 December 2002 11:18:00(UTC)
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Posted By Malcolm Earl Has anyone done any work with an employee who is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. I do not wish to break any confidentiality issues, I am looking for a Risk Assessment if anyone has one or a chat with someone who has carried a risk assessment out on an employee who is suffering from Parkinson’s. I have carried out research on various Parkinson’s web sites and have obtained reasonable back ground information.
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#2 Posted : 19 December 2002 11:25:00(UTC)
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Posted By Peter Vintner Why are you carrying out a risk assessment on an individual with parkinson's. Risk assessment is activity driven (person, activity and work environment) not person driven or disease driven in isolation. Pete
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#3 Posted : 19 December 2002 11:32:00(UTC)
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Posted By P Hocking Malcolm, Your best source of information is the person with Parkinson's. I would suggest that you involve him/her in the process. They are probably aware of there own limitations within their sphere of activities.
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#4 Posted : 19 December 2002 13:04:00(UTC)
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Posted By Malcolm Earl Thank you, for the replies. I am looking at the work activities, however under the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regs ACOP. “Identifying who might be harmed and how”, I am taking into account those who work alone and disabled staff. Many work tasks that are not a hazard to a non-Parkinson’ sufferer are a real hazard to a sufferer. An example might be some Parkinson’s sufferers have a problem with arm control and require an automatic car, this does not stop them from driving. Do all the members show in their risk assessments for driving company vehicles that the employee must be able to operate a gear lever. Do you see where I am coming from. I suspect I will have to review every task individually and write an assessment to include this disease.
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#5 Posted : 19 December 2002 14:00:00(UTC)
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Posted By Peter Vintner Malcolm, I may be wrong but I think that you are going to make a rod for your own back. If there are activities such as company car driving then wouldn't it be simpler to authorise individuals to carry out certain tasks after you have assessed their competencies based on previous experience training, knowledge etc. If these individuals can demonstrate competency then the risk becomes insignificant. Risk assessments are carried out where the risk is considered significant. Pete
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#6 Posted : 19 December 2002 16:10:00(UTC)
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Posted By wendy macdonald Hi Malcolm, It may be advisable for you to involve your Occupational Health Department or Advisor in such an assessment. I agree with the other comments that this is a difficult area and you also need to consider the DDA (Disabiltiy Discrimination Act)when undertaking such assessments and changes to working practises. The employer him/herself is the best person to inform you of their abilties/disabilties but professional help should also be sought from your Occupational Health provider. If you work for a local authority another good contact would would be your Social Services Occupational Therapy team who can be a very useful source of information on adaptions to enable the employee to be independant. Hope this is of some help. regards wendy
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#7 Posted : 19 December 2002 16:20:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jane Blunt Dear Malcolm I think you are working along the right lines. Risk assessment can be triggered by work activities, locations, legislation, and people who are at additional risk for various reasons, such as the disabled, the young, and women who are expectant or nursing. The process of risk assessment identifies if there are those especially at risk and defines what needs to be done to reduce the risk to an acceptable level, which may well include them being supplied with special equipment and being expected to demonstrate their competence to do the task safely. Doing it the other way round - putting in a system of authorising individuals and then carrying out risk assessment in the cases where risk is considered significant is, I believe, to put the cart before the horse. Sadly I cannot contribute anything constructive about Parkinson's Disease Jane
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