Do you know that slips, trips, and falls are among the top three causes of injuries resulting in missed workdays and even the second biggest cause of preventable death at home? It's time to take action and prevent these incidents from occurring in our lives.
Host: Danny Smith
Guest: Teena Blount
Do you know that slips, trips, and falls are among the top three causes of injuries resulting in missed workdays and even the second biggest cause of preventable death at home? It's time to take action and prevent these incidents from occurring in our lives.
Host: Danny Smith
Guest: Teena Blount
Welcome back to Safe Talk with Safe Start. I'm Danny Smith. Today we continue our Flex Series with building habits to prevent slips, trips and falls, and I've asked fellow consultant Tina Blunt to help me unpack this unit. So, Teena, welcome back to the podcast.
Teena Blount:Thank you, Danny, thanks for having me back again. You know, as I was preparing for today, I was thinking if I had only one wish for the safety community, it might be the elimination of slip trips and falls everywhere we go. It seems to be one of the top three of the injury causation.
Danny Smith:It really does, you know, but unfortunately, until SpaceX or NASA or whoever can get us that gravity-free can environment, well, I guess it's just kind of wishful thinking to totally eliminate it, but we can do some things to help prevent some of those things, you know, but it is a huge problem, like you said, and according to the National Safety Council's injury facts, slips, trips and falls is, like you said, among the top three things that cause people to miss work because of accidental injuries. It's also the second biggest cause of preventable death at home. So, before we get into the unit lunch, set the stage for this just a bit.
Danny Smith:I know personally that historically, I've had lots and lots of issues related to slips, trips and falls, and many of our listeners have probably heard me in the past talk about some of those slips, trips and falls that I've had, along with me talking a bit about the multitude of sprained ankles that I experienced when I was younger, and I mentioned those sprained ankle injuries because I found those to be closely related with some of the slips, trips and falls.
Danny Smith:Sometimes it's a twisted ankle and then I fall or you get the idea. Most of the time, though, it's just a simple matter of, I didn't look where I was placing my feet or not looking for something that caused me to slip before I moved. And you know, it's funny, as Larry Wilson would say, It's rare that somebody has a problem with balance, traction or grip or line of fire for that matter, when you're both looking and thinking about what you're doing. And Teena, I know you've mentioned before that you always thought, or maybe it even been told by some folks, that you were clumsy before you got into SafeS tart and took the SafeS tart course, and then you realize that, well, it wasn't really that you were clumsy, but you just didn't have good habits related to eyes and mind on task, right?
Teena Blount:That's correct. Some of the things that I always talk about when we're training is the plants that I worked at being in the mining industry. The ground's not always smooth, so, again, that the possibility of slip trips and falls were everywhere If you weren't looking at where we were going or you weren't thinking about what you could see or not see. Also, in our processing plants, we have lots and lots of stairs and ladders, so climbing stairs and ladders had really become one of those things where I would typically either upper at the very bottom, kind of get in a hurry and lose my balance. So when I went through SafeS tart classics back in 2012, one of the habits, the main habit that I worked on was learning how to use the handrail. We know they're there, we're taught to use them, but to actually put a lot of effort into it.
Danny Smith:And.
Teena Blount:I can say that what trips and falls on stairs and ladders went down tremendously. It also taught me how to slow down a little bit so that when walking on the uneven ground or the slippery ground got a lot better at that too. So SafeS tart has personally helped me tremendously in this slip, trips and falls.
Danny Smith:That's a great way to look at this, you know, and I'm the same way. Um, so let's talk a bit about the new Flex Unit that deals specifically with slips, trips and falls and, more specifically, as you were alluding to there, just building those habits to help prevent those. If you would look, let's just kind of walk through what's in the unit, if you would take us through that a bit.
Teena Blount:Okay, but, Danny, before we get to that, let's just back up a minute and point out again that none of the units are to be used as a substitute for the full course. Sure, now, identifying the habits that will help avoid losing balance, traction or grip is a key takeaway from the unit. The participants will discover not only which habits will be the most beneficial when it comes to avoiding slips trips and falls, but they'll also learn how to work on building those habits to make them their own.
Danny Smith:You know, when you start talking about habits, I think we automatically, because of the SafeS tart training that we have, we think about how those habits help us to compensate for complacency right?
Teena Blount:Yeah, and while complacency is often the root cause of slips, trips and falls, it's not like the other states of rushing. Frustration and fatigue Don't cause their fair share of these types of incidents.
Danny Smith:Sure, I can relate to that myself. I just get in a bit of a hurry not take the moment or so to look before you move, easy to see how that can happen. So let's safety-related those habits a bit more And if you would don't take a moment you mentioned holding the handrail already, but if you would just take a moment share a habit that can really help with slip strips and falls.
Teena Blount:All right. So one habit for each category. Now, there's a number of habits we can work on for each, but I'll give you just a few of my favorites. So, for slips, learning how to test your footing or grip before you commit your way I think we think about that when the ground is wet or icy or snowy, but for it to be a habit, we have to practice it every time. So learning to do that is a huge one. For slips, for trips, you've got to move your eyes before you move your body. That's the one that really has helped And I think it's the one that I have to practice the most. Right, because those other states kind of pop in sometimes. And when it comes to falls, getting the habit of looking for and thinking about the things that could cause you to lose your balance, traction or grip.
Danny Smith:You were talking about the slips there that I, just as you, were going through. That it just reminded me of something that happened years and years ago and I haven't even thought about this in the past, but it was actually not me, but it was my grandmother. And this goes back. Oh gosh, I was probably I don't know nine, 10 years old, something like that. So years ago Yeah, we won't say how far, but a number of years ago. But I remember.
Danny Smith:I live in the deep South, like you do, Teena, and you know we don't get a lot of ice and snow here, so consequently, we don't think about that a lot.
Danny Smith:And I remember when, again when I was nine or 10 years old, my grandmother, on a very cold morning, got up and just went to go outside for something And I forget what it was she was doing now but she went out and hit a little bit of ice on the steps, just wasn't thinking about the potential for there being ice on the steps because, again, we don't have to deal with it, and she certainly wasn't looking for it.
Danny Smith:And when that happened, she slipped first and then she fell, and when she fell she ended up cracking one of her vertebrae and she. She had problems with that literally the rest of her life. You know for another, I think she probably lived another 20, 25 years after that and still had some issues from her back, just from that simple thing of not taking a moment there to look and not testing her grip before she or her footing, rather before she. She committed her way. She just wasn't thinking about it before she stepped out there. So let's let's talk a little bit more about the training that's involved here with the Flex Units.
Teena Blount:Okay. So, as you know, all of the Flex Units follow the instructional design of SafeS tart Now. So first you'll need to be certified in that approach and then the training can be done in two 45-minute sessions or 90-minute session, but really I recommend two sessions with no more than two weeks in between the sessions. Sometimes information reload causes us to miss some really important key points.
Danny Smith:Sure, yeah, and I love that format because it gives folks the opportunity if they have in a monthly safety meeting or what have you, it gives them the opportunity just to break that up and it gives them, you know, really material for a couple of meetings in a row there. And if folks are looking for some assistance with that, we can certainly help too, right?
Teena Blount:Yes, we can help with that. We can come on site or drop in virtually to train your employees. Now, I personally am a huge fan of the in person, face to face training. You can read the room better when you're there And just over the past few years, I think most of us have gotten pretty zoomed out.
Danny Smith:I think so too. Yeah, everywhere I talk to you folks, you're like yeah, can we just actually see people eye to eye again? It's so nice to actually have see real people and real smiling faces, isn't it?
Teena Blount:I get real excited when I have actual people in a classroom.
Danny Smith:No doubts, no doubts. Yeah, I've you know I do a lot of the conference speaking with SafeStart, along with several of our other folks who do that, and I can tell you it's so nice, and has been so nice over the past few months, just to get back out and see people again and see crowds again and, post- pandemic, to see people out and about and see good numbers back at our conferences again just people learning and sharing best practices and things like that. So Teena, thanks so much for making time for us today on this really, really important subject about how to deal with slips, trips and falls, specifically how to build some habits about that.
Teena Blount:Thank you, Danny, for having me back. I appreciate it.
Danny Smith:So, on behalf of Teena and the entire team here at SafeTalk, thanks so much for your time today And again, consider sharing this episode. It's a really critical thing. Take a look not only at this new flex unit but also some of the others that we have. We'll have some other podcasts coming up about those coming up in the near future and just continue to work on those safety- related habits. They really do help to compensate for complacency and that can help us in those times when we're complacent or perhaps even when we're rushing, frustrated or fatigued, to help prevent those slips, trips and falls. Until next time, I'm Danny Smith for SafeTalk with SafeStart, have a great day.