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Mental Health And BT Waste Management Themes Of NW BT Unions H&S Coord Seminar

Working with BT and the NHS, the North West Health & Safety Co-ord held this year's Health and Safety Seminar in Blackburn TEC last week. With two special guest speakers giving a presentation on two major issues that are both in the public eye at the moment, CWU Union Safety Reps gathered for the 4 hour seminar with great enthusiasm.

With the subjects of Alzheimer's Awareness and Waste Management of BT Estates, both speakers responded to comments and questions following each of their presentations, with USRs truly engaged with the subject matter of the day.

NHS worker and mental health expert, Mrs Marina Woodburn presented a very detailed and informative set of slides on Alzheimer Awareness, the mental health condition which is increasing amongst the population of the UK.

Her presentation was met with total silence from USRs who then during question time related their own experience of relatives/friends suffering this terrible illness for which there is no cure currently.

Her Power Point presentation included the way in which people should deal with those suffering from the illness, and gave tips on how to deal with situations when helping sufferers in their homes and ensuring medication, where prescribed, is taken.

The most informative part of Marina's presentation discussed what Alzheimer is, how it is diagnosed and ways in which its lay people can identify how it presents itself and the signs and symptoms of the disease.

It included an exercise which served to explain what happens in the brain of those sufferer from Alzheimers.

You can view her full 34 minute presentation below:

 

The event then turned to Mel Grimes, a BT manager who values the work of CWU's USRs employed in BT Openreach in helping to deal with the serious issue of waste management in TECs which includes dangerous items such as fibre shards and both metal and plastic waste.

His Power Point presentation was both informative and alarming in the sense that there are areas across the country which have major issues when it comes to waste management.

Detailing plans for an overhaul and management of the system of waste disposal, he told the USRs attending of plans to address the problem and expressed the need for USR support in doing so.

The engagement of the assembled safety reps on this issue was clear as questions and suggestions took this specific session of the day's event to an hour.

One of the major concerns was that engineers are not utilising the waste collection facilities available in TEC's and that dangerous waste is not being processed properly.

The North West BT Unions Health & Safety Co-ord has committed itself to promote the need for proper and appropriate disposal of waste, and supports fully, the plans put in place as identified by Mel in his presentation. Needless to say that all Union Safety Reps present at today's event are fully behind this initiative.

Here you can view Mel's 28 minute presentation:

 

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