The Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine invited British health expert Professor Dame Carol Black to deliver the keynote address to the World Congress of International Medicine and discuss the findings and implications of her report, “Working for a healthier tomorrow”. The first of its kind report was presented to British Secretaries of State for Health, and Work and Pensions earlier last year and was heralded as the single most significant body of research and professional opinion regarding health and wellbeing for the working-age British population.

Black’s report reviewed over 260 responses from health industry organisations, research councils, medical and health industry colleges and associations, and business representative organisations in order to improve British workplace health practices.

The report calls for recognition of the “Human, Social and Economic costs of impaired Health and Well-Being in relation to working life,” and highlights the Governmental requirement to remedy the situation.

In Britain, the annual economic costs of short and long-term sickness absence due to work-related injury or illness are estimated at over £100 billion. Many of these work-related health issues include common mental health problems and musculoskeletal disorders which could be prevented with early intervention and good workplace health awareness practices.

There are many key challenges and points in the report:

• Identifying the factors that stand in the way of good health in the workplace;
• Helping employers to understand the business case for investing in the health and well-being of their employees;
• To elicit changes in attitudes, behaviours and practices, and services for maintaining health in the workplace;
• Timely and appropriate diagnosis and intervention with regard to workplace injury;
• The insufficiently recognised importance of physical and mental health in relation to workers’ families, personal and social lives;
• Increasing general awareness that issues of health and work are not reduced to medicine and medical, but also involve social and environmental factors;
• Encouraging a shift in employee, employer and health professional perceptions to what people can do, including adapted roles;
• Training GPs in returning patients to work so that their assessment of potential return to work duties is not overly cautious or unnecessarily restrictive; and
• Expanding the role of occupational health beyond those in employment, to all workers either entering the workforce, seeking to remain in work, or trying to return to work after sickness absence.

Here in Australia, the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AFOEM) has developed a position statement entitled, “Realising the Health Benefits of Work”.

The statement aims to build on Professor Black’s body of work, identifying the centrality of work to health and wellbeing, and the negative health and social implications of staying away or out of work for too long following a workplace injury or illness. The draft statement has been released to the public and industry for comment, which will be collated and incorporated into the final draft to be launched in May by Sir Mansell Aylward.

In line with the principle “work, in general, is good for people,” the statement encourages employers to acknowledge the influence they have on workers’ health and wellbeing by:

• Ensuring that workplaces are safe, and having a workplace culture conducive to health and wellbeing;
• Accommodating ill or injured workers to remain in the workplace where possible; and
• Embracing inclusive employment practices.

As with Black’s report, the AFOEM position statement contains practical suggestions for medical and allied professionals, employers and government, in bringing workplace health and wellbeing practices in line with those recommended in Black’s report. Part of the foreword from the position statement shows the heart of AFOEM’s intentions: “As Occupational and Environmental Physicians, we encourage all Australians and New Zealanders to ensure that the health and wellbeing benefits of work are delivered to all.”