Meet Bridie Tamayo, Head of Injury Prevention at Bodycare Workplace Solutions

“We need to stop asking ‘how do we fix this injury?’ and instead start asking ‘how did this happen, why did it happen and how can we prevent it happening in the future?’”

Tell us a bit about yourself 

Name: Bridie Tamayo

Role: Head of Injury Prevention at Bodycare Workplace Solutions 

Favourite Sports Team: I’m a Melbourne girl so my AFL Team is Essendon

What’s your background?: I started as a physio in private practice. I did that for about five years and loved it, but eventually became a bit burnt out by the constant grind of it all. Then I started working at Bodycare about 12 years ago as an onsite physio.

After a few years I moved into an account management role, so looking after some of our clients and our physios onsite. Then for the last five to six years, I’ve been running the Onsite Injury Prevention business unit around Australia. That’s our onsite physio service, our offsite physio clinics and our 24-7 triage service.

How can businesses move from reactive injury management to proactive injury prevention?

I think the biggest thing that companies can do to switch from being reactive to proactive in the injury management space is a shift in mindset.

So instead of viewing injuries as isolated incidents that need managing, instead start viewing them as predictable occurrences that could be prevented.

We need to stop asking ‘how do we fix this injury?’ and instead start asking ‘how did this happen, why did it happen and how can we prevent it happening in the future?’.

What might businesses overlook when helping injured workers reintegrate safely?

One of the biggest things I see overlooked when facilitating a return-to-work process for an injured worker is the social and psychological impact that injuries can have on people.

Returning to work is so much more than just a medical clearance or suitable duties plan. It’s really about making sure that worker still feels connected to the workplace, is supported and feels valued in their role.

If someone returns to work and they feel isolated, they don’t feel supported or they feel like they’re a burden to the workplace, that can have a really large impact on their ability to return to their previous role and their duties and even delay that recovery timeframe.

A proactive, coordinated approach means that everyone comes together, they’re all on the same page, so the supervisors, the managers, the treating physios, and that worker.

We can then make sure that worker feels supported and they’re getting the best outcome that they can.