BIA UK’s very own Kenny Butler has co-authored a study that has made it into the British Medical Journal (BMJ) as part of his work with Active Health UK. The piece has been covered in numerous press including The Sun, The Times and iNews.

Focus on Physical Activity Can Can Help Avoid Unnecessary Social Care

You can read the finished article here but in summary, the study explains how physical activity for older adults can help maintain their health and reduce the spiralling cost of social care.

The cost ramifications and shortage of social care services are rife in the UK and with direct links between “the parlous state of the NHS and the social care crisis”, it’s important for the nation’s future health to address this and reduce the impact.

This write up shows that there is a cost-efficient and effective way to start reducing the social care cost by simply focusing on increasing the amount of physical activity completed by older adults.

Discussion

Within the published piece is a discussion on the effects of ageing and loss of fitness. It is noted that the two are often confused and mistakenly, people tend to think that exercise may make health conditions worse whereas this is rarely the case. By working on strength, stamina, suppleness and skill the benefits for older adults can span cognitive, physical and social aspects.

An important report from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges wrote: “Exercise may reverse the decline and keep a person above the threshold for needing increased care”. This is an important statement and indicative of how important exercise can be in reducing social care cost.

The piece then goes on to discuss the role of healthcare and policy in supporting these findings as well as specific statistics around physical activity and health benefits.

Read the full post here.

We’ve read and digested a new report by the Society for Occupational Medicine discussing the value proposition of occupational health for employers and have a summary of its main points that relate to our work as occupational physiotherapists below.

Introduction

Health problems among the working population are having a significant socio-economic impact. Population surveys estimate that 131 million days were lost due to sickness absences in the UK in 2013. Minor illnesses were the most common reason given for these illnesses and accounted for 27.4 million of these days whilst the greatest number of days were due to musculoskeletal problems (30.6 million). This is ample evidence to support the inclusion of occupational health for employees. Other main points addressed in the report include;

1. How is Occupational Health Support Accessed?

In relation to how occupational services are accessed, the report states:

• Access to occupational health services are restricted to employees of large companies only, but SMEs are by far and away the biggest employers, so these employees aren’t getting the benefits of these services

Supporting Statistics

Only a minority of the UK workforce can access a comprehensive occupational health service. A telephone survey of 2,250 British employers in all sectors of the British economy enquiring about broad health and wellbeing provision reported that 13% of employers provided access to occupational health services to employees in the last year.

2. How is Occupational Health Support Defined?

A telephone survey of 4,950 UK employers examining specifically the use of occupational health support defined comprehensive occupational health support as; hazard identification, risk management, provision of information modifying work activities, providing training on occupational health-related issues, measuring workplace hazards, and monitoring trends in health.

Using this definition, only 3% of UK employers provided access to comprehensive occupational health services. Both surveys reported that more large organisations provide access than small companies too. The range of services was also determined by legislative or statutory requirements within each industry sector.

3. How is the Business Case Made for Occupational Health Support?

“The business case for investing in occupational health within an organisation must be transparent and compelling. The benefits are not restricted to financial reasons and the quality of return on investment economic evaluations are low. The business “value” of high absence needs to be determined by each company rather than just looking at pure financials”.

• Compelling business reasons for investing in occupational health should include:
  • Legal – the legal obligation employers have for the safety and welfare of their employees. This includes compliance with statutory regulation including The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. As part of this legislation, employers are required to conduct health assessments where occupational health staff can advise on the specific needs of employees and arrange or provide suitable programmes.
  • Moral – Moral reasons for implementing an occupational health plan have usually been taken by smaller companies that know their staff intimately and want to provide a good workplace for them. But increasingly, corporate social responsibility has led larger employers to undertake a moral duty to look after their staff.
  • Financial – sickness absence is estimated to cost UK businesses £28.8 billion each year; an overall median cost of £554 per employee, and anywhere between 2-16% of payroll. Yet when surveyed only half of employers thought that occupational health provided a return on investment. However when examined closely, the costs provide a compelling case for considering occupational health investment.

Below is a table of tangible and intangible costs associated with poor occupational health:

Conclusion

Increasingly employees, customers, shareholders and investors expect employers to demonstrate high standards of corporate social responsibility and to integrate social, ethical and environmental concerns into business operations. Social concerns include employee health and wellbeing; consequently occupational health can play a major role in employers’ corporate social responsibility programmes. In summary:

• Protecting and promoting employee health is integral to corporate social responsibility
• Employees think employers should be more proactive in providing workplace health interventions
• Work-related ill health is a significant cost to individuals, employers and the taxpayer
• Employer paid interventions may save more money at a societal level (health and social care)

Download the full report here.

There has been renewed emphasis on health in the workplace due in considerable part to findings from the recent consultation “Work, health and disability green paper: improving lives”. This important consultation supports a case for action with regard to the workplace through; tackling significant inequality, supporting people into work, supporting healthy workplaces, supporting employment and more. It revealed several findings about the workplace as well as what needs to be done to make this a better, more productive environment for employees.

BIA UK’s Efforts in the Workplace

BIA UK’s emphasis is on keeping employees in work and helping them return to work more quickly through the aid of occupational physiotherapy. We see outstanding results and have reached a return on investment value of up to 11:1 through our efforts.

We support the consultation results fully and are excited to see what change is incited as a result of the findings.

The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper

Below, we cover some salient points from the paper and explain how the findings relate to the type of work we do at BIA UK.

• “Evidence shows that appropriate work is good for our health” At BIA UK we see on a daily basis the improved mental and physical health of employees that have returned to or stayed in work as opposed to going off sick
• “Reducing long term sickness absence is a priority – 1.8 million employees on average have a long-term sickness absence of 4 weeks or more in a year” BIA UK operates to keep employees in work and reduce considerable long term absence. For one of our clients we reduced the mean musculoskeletal absence length from 17 days to 3 days. Review the case study here.
• “Access to timely treatment varies across areas; Average waiting times for mental health treatment can differ by as much as 12 weeks across England and some evidence suggests treatment for musculoskeletal conditions can differ by as much as 23 weeks” This is one of the key benefits of inhouse physiotherapy in treating musculoskeletal issues. Employees can get treated faster and at their place of work, lessening time away from work with sickness and also travel time spent going offsite for physiotherapy treatment
• “Almost 1 in 3 working-age people in the UK have a long-term health condition which puts their participation in work at risk” Musculoskeletal issues affect high numbers of employees – an estimated 9.5million working days were lost in 2014/15 due to such ailments
• “Over half (54%) of all disabled people who are out of work experience mental health and/or musculoskeletal conditions as their main health condition” Musculoskeletal conditions were the second highest cause of short term absence according to the 2015 Absence Management report from the CIPD

Other Findings and Conclusions

The paper goes on to say:

“There is a lack of practical support to help people stay connected to work and get back to work. This has to change.”

It also includes the following from its list of “wants”:

“We want to: help employers take action to create a workforce that reflects society as a whole and where employers are equipped to take a long-term view on the skills and capability of their workforce, managing an ageing workforce and increased chronic conditions to keep people in work, rather than reacting only when they lose employees.

We want to: ensure people are able to access the right employment and health services, at the right time and in a way which is personalised to their circumstances and integrated around their needs.”

Summary

We have been champions of keeping employees in work and delivering treatment for musculoskeletal illnesses for many years. It’s fantastic to see the government delivering more evidence to support the valuable work we do to improve workplace health in the UK.

We finish with a positive quote we enjoyed from the paper: “Let’s ensure everyone has the opportunity to go as far as their talents will take them – for a healthier, working nation.”

To find out more about our occupational physiotherapy service and how this can work to reduce absenteeism, presenteeism and save hours you can try our ROI calculator here.

EMS stands for Electric Muscle Stimulation and is a training technique used in gyms, beauty centres, sport, rehabilitation and medicine. We take a look at what it is and how it works on the body to improve muscle strength and tone.

What is EMS Training?

As the name suggests EMS training involves sending electrical impulses to the muscles to cause their contraction. By doing so muscle can be gained without harming or impacting the joints and it can be gained quickly through its activation of a large percentage of muscle fibres. Other benefits of EMS include a resulting improvement in strength and speed, body shaping and tightening of connective tissue.

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A new study has elaborated further on prior evidence taken from a study suggesting that exercise programs can ease the burden of mobility issues in our aging workforce. We look at the findings, and how these fit into BIA UK’s existing philosophy.

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