Publication
Health and Wellbeing
From Office of the Civil Service Chief Medical Officer
Published on
Last updated on
Workplace health and wellbeing can take a variety of different forms.
Individual health screening seeks to detect an illness risk factor before it causes clinically recognisable illness. For example, raised blood pressure and high cholesterol levels usually progress without any symptoms until a serious event such as a heart attack or stroke occurs. The majority of adults in the Irish population aged 45-64 years of age have evidence of either raised blood pressure and/or raised cholesterol. The CMO’s office has published a “Guide to Health Screening in the Workplace."
This is now in its third edition and is a valuable resource. This assists departments who wish to source health promotion screening tests from private providers, and details what tests we recommend/do not recommend. It is widely used by employers in the both the public sector and the private sector.
We offer health education sessions that are provided as part of our statutory immunisation and audiogram hearing check programmes. These are delivered by our occupational health nurses. This is to ensure participants understand the purpose of the intervention and the importance of preventative measures. It also enables them to make an informed decision as to whether to participate or not.
Dependent on resources, we from time to time directly offer employee health screening for high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol to civil service departments. The aim is to prevent long term illnesses such as heart disease and stroke. An occupational health nurse visits the department and individual screening with on the spot blood tests are undertaken. Blood pressure, pulse, cholesterol and sugar levels are measured and the results are given to the employee. Advice relating to concerns or abnormal results is delivered. The results are kept confidentially by the Civil Service Occupational Health Department (CSOHD).
