Work is essential to our health and wellbeing
Work is essential to our health and wellbeing - and not being able to work can bring on even more health problems. In the north east we have a project in place to look at ways of improving the health and wellbeing of the workforce. Led by the SHA, the Health and Wellbeing Project aims to:
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Prevent staff from becoming ill as a result of their work
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Promote health and wellbeing in the workplace
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Provide support and intervention to allow staff to continue to work if they develop a health condition
The project has been set up with representatives from HR, occupational health, health and safety, corporate governance and management. In addition there is support from the social partnership forum, which includes regional trade union representatives.
Initially the project is focusing on ensuring that appropriate support is offered to staff when they are unable to attend work due to illness or incapacity. The group will then look to develop a clinical pathway model ensuring that staff are placed at the centre of the service and provided with high quality and consistent care to enable them to return to work. The project will also link with the broader health and wellbeing agenda, linking in particular to the mature and working life theme in the Better Health, Fairer Health strategy.
