When Professor Dame Carol Black addressed a gathering of business people, occupational physicians, rehabilitation professionals, senior bureaucrats and insurers at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in Melbourne one Friday at the end of October 2010, spring was not only in the air but also en vogue. Amongst the seventy or so people assembled, floral prints in green, red, blue and purple vied for sartorial dominance with regulation Melbourne black. The Dame herself wore luminous tones of cream, beige and grey, and appeared very trim and English by comparison.

“We’re here to talk about good work and consensus,” Dr Robin Chase, President of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AFOEM) said, before introducing Dame Carol. (Dr Chase was dressed in a dark suit, embellished by the Faculty’s white-striped, sky blue tie.) By way of introduction, Dr Chase listed some highlights from Dame Carol’s slew of accomplishments, including her past presidency of the Royal College of Physicians—she is only the second female president in the College’s 500 year history.

Vaulting above the glass ceiling is not, however, the achievement of which Dame Carol herself is most proud. When RTWMatters spoke with her later in the day, she pointed instead to her influential review of the health of the UK workforce, Working for a healthier tomorrow.

“I am pretty pleased by having had the opportunity to do this work, publish my report, and then see it accepted and rolled out. Many of my other achievements have been within one sector, for example my work on scleroderma was based in medicine. Working for a healthier tomorrow addresses societal issues, and I hope it will be of benefit to people across all walks of life.”

Working for a healthier tomorrow contains a Healthcare Professionals’ Consensus Statement on Health and Work, signed by around 40 UK organisations. As his introductory remark suggests, Dr Chase, along with other members of AFOEM including RTWMatters' own Dr Mary Wyatt, have been preparing a similar Consensus Statement for Australia and New Zealand, in recognition of the health benefits of good work.

The need for a clear consensus within the medical community was a theme of Dame Carol’s talk.

“Nothing in my training told me that work and health were connected,” Dame Carol, who once worked as a rheumatologist, said. “My teachers did a very good job educating me about the dangers of smoking. However, when a patient told me that they were not at work, I never asked ‘Why are you not at work? Would you like to be at work? How can I help you get to work?’”

However, it is not only treating practitioners (and their patients) who require increased awareness of the health benefits of work.

Dr Ruth Dunkin, director of policy at the Business Council of Australia, addressed the room after Dame Carol.

“Business is in the process of learning about how work determines health, just as medical organisations are,” Dr Dunkin said.

“One huge difficulty is that, like medical professionals, most business students do not receive training in these issues. The silo-isation within bodies of knowledge affects business too. We need to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. We need to offer business people training in the impacts of work on health.”

In recognition of the influence that businesses, unions, government and medical and allied professionals all exert on health and work, with Dame Carol’s support AFOEM has aimed for a broader consensus than that achieved in the United Kingdom.

In the week leading up to Dame Carol’s talk, she and Dr Chase met with business groups, GPs and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Many of these groups expressed provisional support for the Australian version of the Consensus Statement, with detailed comment to follow.

“Our systems are different from yours, but our challenges are just the same,” Dame Carol told her colourful Melbourne audience.

“Work is a determinant of our self-worth, dignity and place in society. How can we support people with chronic diseases, so that they can remain at work? How can we help people who have a job, but who are away sick, from sliding into worklessness? How can we assist job seekers, who may or may not have a health condition? And how can we support those long term benefit recipients who can work, into the workforce?”

AFOEM’s Consensus Statement regarding the health benefits of work will not solve these problems, but it may be the beginning of a solution. You can read—and comment on—the draft Consensus Statement here.