Calling SES volunteers – you can help with research

If you’re a State Emergency Service volunteer, you can help with a national research study that will develop guidelines on the minimum physical capability required to undertake tasks safely.

The CRC project SES fit for task is seeking input from volunteers across Australia of all ages and fitness levels to participate in research to understand the minimum physical requirements that a volunteer will need, to safely undertake SES tasks for which they are appropriately trained and qualified. The more people that can be involved the better. The greater the number of participants, the better the research team will be able to understand the minimum (entry-level) fitness levels that are required.

If you are interested in participating in this research, please contact the work health and safety team in your SES state or territory office. Participants must hold the competencies relevant to each trial.

Undertaken through the CRC’s Tactical Research Fund and commissioned by AFAC, the study will support the development of valid, evidence-based, practical and usable minimum physical fitness levels that are required to safely undertake specified SES tasks. All SES agencies across are Australia are part of the research and will be provided with the outcomes of the research.

This includes the physical demands of SES tasks, from lifting sandbags, to working at heights, carrying a stretcher, operating a flood rescue boat and participating in alpine search and rescue. It will also provide simple ways to test for those physical demands, to ensure volunteers are able to carry out the tasks safely for the community, using a defined set of entry-level physical fitness measures.

Volunteers who participate in the research will perform tasks and activities while fitted with physical measurement equipment, such as heart rate devices, to help the project team understand the physical demands of tasks.

Nationally, once the project is completed and the outcomes implemented by the SES agencies, there will be a common understanding of the minimum fitness levels required to safely do the work that SES volunteers undertake.

For more information about the project, visit the project page: http://www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/resilience-hazards/3932