Funeral Industry Workers' Work Health and Safety in Australia and Ireland. 2022

Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
Centre for Ergonomics, Safety and Health, School of Public Health, 2080La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

Funeral workers (FWs) work within increasingly medicalized and commodified death-management systems. This study explored Worker Health and Safety (WHS) impacts in contemporary death management on Australian and Irish FWs. Mixed methods combined a survey and interviews. Survey data were descriptively summarized, interviews thematically analyzed, and a schematic systems model developed of the combined results. Survey participants (n = 45) reported psychosocial hazards from work pressures, competition, and fatigue. Psychosocial hazards were more frequently reported than physical hazards by Australian FWs. Physical hazards were of greater concern to Irish FWs. Themes from 11 interviews were: Personal Attributes, Work Demands, and Socio-Cultural Context. All FWs reported conflicts between individual capacities, work demands, and resources, resulting in hazardous personal states including difficulty sleeping and stress. Respectfully manually handling human remains and "event management" demands for increasingly elaborate funerals created negative WHS impacts. This research informs risk management for FWs and other workers in the increasingly complex death-care industry.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
December 2011, Occupational medicine (Oxford, England),
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
January 1987, International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
January 1960, Rassegna di medicina industriale e di igiene del lavoro,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
April 2008, Industrial health,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
December 1975, Royal Society of Health journal,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
September 2015, Journal of occupational rehabilitation,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
December 2006, American journal of infection control,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
April 2009, The Australian journal of rural health,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
March 2021, Journal of law and medicine,
Natalie Roche, and Susan Darzins, and Rwth Stuckey
November 1978, Gigiena i sanitariia,
Copied contents to your clipboard!