Logging and silviculture: injury prevention and rehabilitation case management in the New Zealand forest industry

The New Zealand forest industry is recognised as a dangerous occupation with relatively high accident and injury frequency rates. Although a large amount of research has focused on the prevention of accidents, very little research has been conducted on how to rehabilitate injured forest workers. In several Scandinavian countries, special institutes exist which take care of the rehabilitation needs of the injured forest workers. These institutes attempt to return the injured worker to suitable work, preferably that which they were engaged in prior to the injury. They attempt to achieve this through a special emphasis on training in correct working techniques. One of the key concepts employed is training the injured person to work ergonomically by using tools such as video, back declining beepers, radio communication and other devices and tools to provide feedback on working techniques. In the New Zealand forest industry there are no such institutes or dedicated rehabilitation programs, and consequently rehabilitation has been largely overlooked by the industry. In the context of a review of international forestry-specific rehabilitation programs, this paper provides a model of injury prevention training, case management procedures, and describes a pilot program incorporating industry awareness packages, job and task analysis, general medical practitioner education. and workplace-based rehabilitation.