Healthy Prospects For Workers

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday July 1, 2003

By ANNE HOWELL

EDMEN Employment Agency is facing a growing demand to place health workers to assist the elderly and disabled.

This reflected a change in the agency's work, as it used to deal primarily with service industries - placing staff for organisations like BHP.

Client services manager Andy Halliday said their new role with medical placements mirrored the change in the modern work structure.

EDMEN's medical team leader Frank Barila said since the push for the ageing and disabled population to enter group housing, there has been a need for 24-hour-a-day support.

EDMEN has a pool of medically trained staff on call to service this demand.

Mr Barila said EDMEN provided the people for some of the major government or privately run community and support services in the region.

``We support them through an agency-based system, providing a 24-hour-a-day on-call service, where we match the needs of their services to that of our candidates."

On EDMEN's books is a pool of 150 people that service Queanbeyan, the Southern Highlands, Sydney and the Illawarra. Of these is a core of about 70 workers from the Illawarra.

``These represent reliable personnel, available day-in, day-out, and include registered nurses, assistant nurses, enrolled nurses and residential care workers."

If a service calls EDMEN for a staff member, they can be there within the hour.

Apart from this, the agency is witnessing another growing trend in job placement.

``We also cater to people who want a career change - like a riggers or miner - who want to work with people instead of what they have been doing. We send them to volunteer organisations to get the hours under their belt."

Mr Barila said some of these had gone on to successful careers as disability support workers.

EDMEN is based at Parramatta and Warrawong.