Perverse incentives in the banking and finance sector

Posted By Stephen Bevan

29 June 2012

I guess that few people will be all that surprised by the latest tales of ‘dodgy’ practices in the banking and finance sector. The coverage of this scandal is re-visiting an assortment of related recent stories ranging from the adequacy of self-regulation, to banking and citizenship, to the moral equivalence between alleged fraud in the City and being jailed for stealing a bottle of water in the 2011 riots.

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Health Minister launches mental health guidance at The Work Foundation

Posted By Steve Bevan

26 June 2012

The challenge of mental illness in the UK workforce is, slowly but surely, emerging from the shadows. The recent debate in Parliament and the willingness of a growing number of high-profile public figures disclosing their own battles with depression are evidence of this. Yesterday at The Work Foundation Health Minister Earl Howe launched the latest Public Health Responsibility Deal pledge on mental health at work. The focus of the pledge, and the guidance material for employers which accompanies it, is the need to make simple adjustments at work for people with mental illness.

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Mental Illness at Work: Still mostly in the closet?

Posted By Steve Bevan

15 June 2012

In 1998 Kjell Magne Bondevik, the then Prime Minister of Norway, took several weeks away from work to receive respite and treatment for depression. Back then his public admission of having a condition that we know 1 in 6 workers also have, was greeting with a mixed reaction.

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Chronic pain in Europe

Posted By Stephen Bevan

01 June 2012

Earlier this week I spoke at the Societal Impact of Pain conference in Copenhagen, under the auspices of the Danish Presidency of the EU. This is a major event bringing together clinicians, patient organisations and researchers who are working on issues arising from the growing burden of chronic pain in Europe’s population.

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