Preventing Frailty: Keeping People Healthy at Work Towards Retirement and Beyond

Overview

This session will explore the experience of older members of the workforce and the changes that may occur in the later years of working life. It will examine both the challenges and benefits of work from individual and workforce perspectives, and highlight the important role occupational health physiotherapists play in supporting employees and employers to develop practical solutions that optimise work ability, participation, and enjoyment as people age.

Associate Professor Martin Mackey (NSW) will be the lead presenter, drawing on his extensive experience and recent contributions to the book What Matters for Healthy Ageing (Springer Nature, 2024), edited by Julie Byles. Martin will discuss strategies to promote work ability in older workers and approaches to measuring and managing risks of frailty to help prevent health-related job loss.

The session will also include short presentations from final-year physiotherapy students from the University of Adelaide, Xingbin Zhao and Blake Supple, who will present on the relationship between work demands and worker capacity. Their presentations will be supported by their Work Health and Safety course coordinator, Dr Rose Boucaut.

Presenter

Dr Martin Mackey, APAM, is an Honorary Affiliate Associate Professor of Physiotherapy in the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. He was Director and Associate Dean of Research Education in the Faculty of Health Sciences 2017-20 prior to retirement from the University in 2021. A/Prof Mackey's research is primarily focussed on work injury prevention and work ability though ergonomic and physical activity interventions, predominately in knowledge workers and health professionals. His doctoral research completed in 2005, evaluated ergonomic and exercise approaches for optimising performance of manual work. A/Prof Mackey continues to be research active and has published over 100 peer reviewed journal papers, book chapters and commissioned reports and has received over $1.5 million in nationally competitive, industry, government, and philanthropic research funding. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy and regularly reviews manuscripts submitted to the international scientific publications. He has reviewed grants for the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Physiotherapy Research Foundation. He has supervised 5 PhD and Masters’ students to completion, and he is currently supervising a further 3 medical and allied health PhD students.

Host

Occupational Health National Group

Date of Live Event

06/05/2026

CPD Hours

1.5 hour

Please note: The content of this Lecture on Demand (LOD) was captured via a recording of a live lecture at the APA premises. Due to the nature of the event and the recording method, this LOD may not have captured some of the questions/comments from live audience. Your purchase of this module indicates your acceptance of this.