Project collaborates with Heart of Australia mobile health service
The Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) Driving Heart Health project, aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of Australian truck drivers, has been allocated heavy vehicle safety funding.
The project will be funded through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) 2020 Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative, provided by the federal government.
The Driving Heart Health project aims to increase physical and psycho-social health awareness for heavy vehicle drivers through an early-intervention health screening* program which assesses interrelated biomedical, psychological and modifiable lifestyle indicators.
“Many truck drivers work and live with occupational pressures that adversely affect their health to a greater extent than workers in other industries and have a higher rate of chronic disease as a result,” QTA CEO Gary Mahon says.
“We want all drivers to be safe, healthy and fit enough to manage fatigue, alertness levels and manage the freight task and get home safely.”
The QTA will use the services of Heart of Australia Corporate Health Initiative (HOACHI) with a fully-customised mobile health clinic performing a Heart Health Convoy in Queensland in early 2021.
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The project will also include locations in Sydney and Melbourne.
“This project will provide truck drivers access to a comprehensive mobile health screening program which identifies early warning signs of chronic disease and encourages lifestyle modification or further interventions where required,”Heart of Australia founder Rolf Gomes says.
The two-year project will commence in late 2020 and the Heart Health Convoy will take the road in Queensland in 2021.
The project will also see health screenings, adapted as necessary for Covid-19 conditions, performed in NSW and Victoria with project outcomes shared via a nationwide education campaign in 2022.