According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, referring to the Amendments to the Construction Regulation, employees working on heights, crane operators, operators of mobile plants and drivers of construction vehicles should be in possession of a medical certificate of fitness declaring them both physical and psychological fit. Currently there is a big drive by companies both internally and externally to ensure that their employees are assessed for psychological fitness. Afriforte has developed an instrument that sifts for psychological fitness risks, i.e., SAPFI. However, Afriforte’s core business is to provide the instrument to the market (i.e., OHS infrastructures) but NOT to implement the instrument in the field. Therefore a business opportunity is available to OHS service providers in SA to serve as an implementation vehicle of the instrument.

Where do you fit in?

Certain companies are implementing the Psychological fitness tool (SAPFI) internally by making use of their Occupational Health and Safety infrastructure. While this is happening in-house at large corporate organisations, contractors (many serving the corporate environment) are also forced to comply; however the majority of these contractors are small businesses and do not have an internal OHS infrastructure or the resources to do so - Most of the smaller contractors usually make use of the local medical doctor to conduct the annual medical evaluation. You as Occupational Health practitioner, especially if you own your own mobile clinical can close this gap by providing such a service to the market as well as provide them with possible guidance and interventions following an assessment.

What is in it for me?

This will expand your scope of practise and enable you to provide additional services to your existing clients (including evaluating the psychological fitness of their employees and assisting with the recovery process of these employees) in order to ensure legal compliance. On the other hand this might also put you in a position to recruit new clients in need of traditional OHS services.

If I am interested in delivering this service to the contractors, what do I do next?

In order to use this tool, you will have to attend a training course and complete a competency assignment upon which we will provide you with all the relevant information and tools to administer the assessment. If this new and exciting opportunity interests you please contact, Lelani Brand-Labuschagne at lelani@afriforte.co.za so that we can provide you with the necessary information to take the process further.