As part of Occupational Health Awareness week (22nd to 28th September), The GUBA Foundation (hosted by Gertrude Asumadu) sat down with GUBA Foundation Trustee, Irene Boham delving into what occupational health entails and how this can be better managed and celebrated within the workplace.

Irene Boham MSc PGDip PGCert ASHEA is an award winning nurse, the Head of Occupational health in a Higher Educational Institution, a Specialist Community Public Health Practitioner in Occupational Health. an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an experienced ICU and A&E Practitioner and Founder of the Irene Boham Foundation.

In this insightful episode, Irene explored why employers should prioritise occupational health within the workplace, highlighting its impact on productivity and staff retention using personal examples.

She also delved into some of the existing challenges that exist in the workplace including stress, and how this can be effectively managed. She also touched on some of the interventions that she has initiated in her places of work towards promoting wellbeing in the workplace and how this has positively impacted staff and called on organisations to follow suit. Furthermore, she explored how some of these initiatives have particularly supported ethnic minority groups and neurodiverse individuals within the workplace citing examples on how she has supported line managers to be better equipped to support their staff in an effective way.

Irene concluded by calling on employers to create safer working environments for employees and highlighting the need in making the workplace accessible and healthy – it is essential and not a luxury.

Listen to the full episode here and don’t forget to share and follow us!