Arthritis Care welcomes Dame Carol Black’s call for action on employment

Dame Carol Black today published her review into the working-age population. Her message was clear: work can be good for your health and well-being and more needs to be done to help people to stay in work.

The review was launched in late 2007 and set out to evaluate the health of the working-age population. It also sought to discover what employers and the Government could be doing to improve the health of the working-age population and help those that are at risk of being unable to work.

Some of the key points the review made were:

• sickness absence and worklessness costs the economy £100 billion a year;
• employers do not adequately understand the benefits of helping people to remain in work;
• employers do not have access to appropriate information and support to invest in the health and well-being of employers;
• there is not a general recognition within society, including from health professionals, of the health and well-being benefits of work;
• there is too great an emphasis on what a person cannot do rather than what they can do;
• there is very little access to early-stage support and advice for people with changing health needs; and
• occupational health is not sufficiently part of mainstream healthcare.

Carol Black’s recommendations include:

• raising awareness amongst employers about the benefits of investing in employee health;
• introducing a service that will provide practical intervention and support for people in the early stage of work absence; and
• supporting health professionals to adapt their healthcare advice to emphasise the measures needed for a person to stay in or return to work.

Arthritis Care welcomes Carol Black’s recommendations and the call for action on assisting people at risk of leaving employment, which reflect the comments we made in our submission to the review.

For many people with arthritis, making appropriate adjustments to the working environment can help to reduce the effects of their condition, enabling a long and productive working life.

Without the support and advice needed to make these adjustments, people with arthritis who may be still able to work are at risk of having to leave their job and losing out on both the financial and health benefits of working.

Implementing the recommendations laid out in this review would be an important step in helping people who find themselves in this position.

You can find out more about the review by clicking here.

If you are having any difficulties relating to your arthritis, perhaps with your working life, and feel you need support and information, please call our free and confidential helpline on 0808 800 4050, weekdays 10am-4pm.