Posted By
Stephen Bevan
12 December 2012
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) remain the single most important cause of absence from work among UK workers. With more support from public serices, this could all change.
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Posted By
Karen Steadman
29 November 2012
Last week’s expert roundtable ‘Acting on the double burden of chronic disease’ jointly organised by the Centre for Mental Health, the Kings Fund and The Work Foundation, investigated the relationship between mental health and physical long-term health issues, and their impact on employment.
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Posted By
Jenny Gulliford
21 November 2012
On Monday this week, Esther McVey, the Minister for Disabled People, announced a number of changes to the Access to Work scheme. These changes should be welcomed, as they help to relieve the cost burden of the scheme on small businesses.
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Posted By
Stephen Bevan
21 November 2012
The publication of our Fit for Work? reports in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year confirmed that the initiative now has a global ‘reach’. With Canada, Israel and Turkey the subject of previous reports (and Russia, Brazil and the USA in the pipeline) the Fit for Work? messages are really gathering momentum. And last Friday I had the honour to be in Tokyo to present the findings of our Fit for Work? research in Japan.
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Posted By
Stephen Bevan
19 October 2012
This week I have been chairing the 4th Annual Fit for Work Summit in Brussels. The Fit for Work programme is a 35-country study which has been examining the burden of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) on the health and productivity of working-age people across Europe, Australasia, North America and parts of Asia. Over 200 delegates from across the world spent two days hearing presentations from eminent clinicians, from patients, from policy-makers and from health economists. Their message was clear: MSDs in the workforce cost the EU over 240 billion Euros each year (up to 2% of GDP) and much more can be done to prevent the loss of productivity and the risk of social exclusion which they represent.
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Posted By
Debbie Cook
07 September 2012
The demands of a charity director are high, particularly in the current climate where people have less to give to good causes.
My role as Director of the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) was my first in the charitable sector (I had 22 years in local government before this) and boy am I hooked already! I first developed a personal connection to NASS about 15 years ago when I was referred to them.
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Posted By
Lisa O'Dea
24 August 2012
Figures released this week show that 1 in 6 young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET). What is less well known is that the chances of young people to enter employment may be further exacerbated by the early onset of chronic and long-term conditions.
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Posted By
Stephen Bevan
24 May 2012
One of the biggest public health challenges we face in the UK is that of physical exercise. Sedentary lifestyles mean that too many of us take little or no regular or strenuous physical exercise. As a result, rates of obesity, diabetes, cardio-vascular disease and depression are higher than they should be.
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Posted By
Stephen Bevan
14 May 2012
The influence of Fit for Work research now extends far beyond Europe with our study of MSDs in Australia published on 13 May.
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Posted By
Ksenia Zheltoukhova
28 March 2012
The Fit for Work project has launched today (28 March 2012) in Riga by Karlis Shadurskis, patron, and Member of European Parliament.
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Posted By
Ksenia Zheltoukhova
22 March 2012
Since 2007 the Work Foundation’s Fit for Work initiative has examined the impact of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) on individuals, organisations and societies.
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Posted By
Ksenia Zheltoukhova
24 February 2012
We know that work is good for our health. However, with too much work, the productivity value may in fact decrease with each extra hour, as working overtime regularly leads to burnout.
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Posted By
Ksenia Zheltoukova
18 January 2012
On Blue Monday (16 January) The Work Foundation discussed the dread workers face on the most depressing day of the year. It was an interesting debate in which Mind’s Emma Mamo called for the cultural silence around mental health in the workplace to change.
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