.jpg)
An Australian insurer took centre stage at the recent icare Insurance for NSW Conference Awards at the ICC.
NSW Ambulance (NSWA) and QBE were both recognised for their jointly-developed Exercise Rehabilitation Therapy for Mental Health Program, taking home two accolades – the General-claims Risk-innovation and People’s Choice awards.
The innovative program was developed in partnership between NSWA and QBE to create an innovative approach to risk mitigation for NSWA.
Vivek Bhatia, QBE’s Chief Executive Officer, Australia and New Zealand, said the awards were a credit to both NSWA and the QBE team.
“Often frontline emergency service workers are at heightened risk of suffering from the situations that they attend,” said Bhatia.
“To help minimise the impact of mental stress on these workers and to curtail the ever-increasing costs – QBE and NSWA partnered with Guardian Exercise Rehab to develop an innovative exercise therapy program to complement traditional therapies.”
Mental health remains at the forefront of a great deal of public conversation around health and wellbeing in Australia, as greater awareness of its importance continues to spread. Thursday this week marked the annual R U OK? Day, geared at driving positive conversations among Australians about the topic.
“Although the team are still in early stages of the program and analysis, immediate findings have identified the program has had an immediate impact and improved physical, psychological and psychosocial health markers,” said Bhatia. “These are fantastic results and we are thrilled to be to recognised alongside our partners on this ground-breaking initiative – congratulations to all involved.”
The award marks another success for QBE this year. In August 2018, AFR reported that QBE’s net profit had risen by US$370 million (AU$511.2 million) for the six months ending June 30.
