Thiess’ Mt Owen coal operation has participated in a voluntary health program designed to improve the mine’s baseline health score.
The Positively Healthy program supported the NSW Mineral Councils (NSWMC) Reshape vision of “one kilo at a time, one miner at a time, one year at a time”.
In 2016, 303 Mt Owen employees and contractors set out to begin the program with the close supervision of Ethos Health. They undertook the InBody Composition scan, measuring body fat, muscle mass, visceral fat and mineral content.
In the next line of action, the staff received guidance for managing their health and lifestyle risks, including nutrition and diet, physical activity, smoking, sleep, alcohol and stress.
The program was facilitated through one-on-one sessions, workshops and team challenges.
The Mt Owen team participation grew to 312 the year after, which represents 82 per cent of the workforce.
Over the course of the year, 146 people lost an average of 1kg of body weight. For those who only lost weight, this figure climbed to 3.4kg.
One individual lost 36.9kg over 12 months of monitoring.
The team achievement has reversed the population trend of gaining 0.3kg by fourfold, and earned the Mt Owen team the NSWMC Health Excellence Award.