Most ACT Health Directorate workers are overweight or obese, don't eat enough vegetables and many suffer from psychological distress, a survey has found. But ACT Health staff are still generally healthier than other ACT workers and the department wants to encourage its employees to become ''model citizens'' when it comes to taking care of their own wellbeing.
The results of a survey completed by more than 800 ACT Health Directorate staff showed that 55 per cent of respondents were overweight or obese, compared with 56per cent of all ACT workers. Half of the ACT Health respondents had moderate to high levels of psychological distress, compared with less than a third of all ACT workers. Only 15 per cent of Health staff had sufficient intake of vegetables and 60 per cent ate enough fruit. But 70 per cent of Health workers were deemed ''sufficiently active'', compared with 35 per cent of ACT workers.
More than half of the Health employees were at no to low risk of alcohol-related harm, compared to 20 per cent of ACT workers generally. Only 8per cent of Health staff were smokers, well down on the territory-wide figure of 20 per cent.
ACT chief health Officer Paul Kelly said the directorate wanted to help achieve national targets that had been set for reducing obesity, smoking and dangerous alcohol consumption and it made sense to work with its own staff of more than 5000 people.
''We've got a large proportion of the workforce who work with us, we should become model citizens and by becoming model citizens we could potentially influence a large proportion of the population which would help us to meet targets nationally that have been set,'' he said.
Although not surprising because of the nature of the work in which many Health staff were engaged, Dr Kelly said the high rates of psychological distress in the directorate were concerning. ''The stress side is higher and that's something and we're looking into it further,'' he said. ''As an employer, it's a priority.''