fit for work europe

Latest News
Fit for Work continues to travel the globe! On 5 & 6 September, the FfW New Zealand report was launched. It found that MSDs affect nearly 1 in 4 adults in New Zealand. For more information on the New Zealand report and Coalition activity, please read the relevant blog here.

On 5 September, FfW Europe Founding President, Steve Bevan, attended the Cypriot Presidency High Level Conference on Healthy Ageing, highlighting the importance of work and productivity for a healthy ageing population.Steve has also written a new blog post on this important trip.

On 28 September the European Council Working Group on Public Health discussed the ‘Reflection Process: Innovative approaches for chronic diseases in public health and healthcare systems’. FfW calls for better management of chronic conditions in Europe, especially for prevalent and impactful conditions such as MSDs. If you have not done so already, now is the time to brief your national representatives on this reflection process – please contact fitforwork@webershandwick.com for information on how to do this.

Patient Survey - understanding life with an MSD
The FfW Europe Coalition aims to improve understanding of the experiences of people diagnosed with an MSD  and identify the best ways to help them stay in or return to work. The FfW Europe  Coalition and The Work Foundation are conducting a survey of people diagnosed with an MSD and live in Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden or the UK. If you are from one of those participating countries, please share the relevant link from ouronline survey page with your network. The more people we can reach, the better our understanding of how people with MSDs can be supported in meaningful employment will be.

MSDs affect the lives of 44 million Europeans, creating significant challenges for people wishing to stay in or return to work. The FfW survey of people diagnosed with an MSD is taking place in eight European countries and aims to gain better understanding of their experiences, as well as generate improved knowledge on how well the national health and welfare systems support their participation and access to the labour market.
 
With the assistance of national organisations, links to the online survey have been posted to individuals across the participating countries. You still have a chance to participate in the survey and share with your own networks – please select the relevant link. Initial findings will be presented at the 4th Annual FfW Europe Summit on October 16 & 17 in Brussels.
 
The Work Foundation, an independent research organisation, will confidentially collate and validate the results. The findings will be used to inform European policy on the treatment and management of MSDs, with an aim to improve living and working experiences of individuals with MSDs. For more information or should you wish to get involved, please contact the FfW Europe Secretariat fitforwork@webershandwick.com.

FfW Europe 4th Annual Summit
The 4th FfW Europe Annual Summit is taking place on 16 & 17 October in Brussels. This year’s event, entitled 'Making Change Happen: Prioritising National Planning and Management of Musculoskeletal Disorders', will engage high-level National and European policymakers, patients, society representatives, healthcare professionals and other key stakeholders, to share best practice and solutions as well as obtain expert insights on effective management of MSDs.
 
Attendees will take part in a series of focused practical sessions to develop skills and techniques for national action on FfW recommendations, such as learning how to develop a national plan for MSDs. The summit is a fantastic opportunity for you to profile your own FfW activities and gain insight into the experience from all over Europe. Click here for information on how to attend today!

On 16 October, a series of interactive workshops will encourage participants to exchange best practices and help implement these on a broad range of topics, from Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to patient-centred care. On 17 October our FfW Co-President and MEP, Antonyia Parvanova, will host a European Parliament session, calling for better management of MSDs, as part of the EU Chronic Diseases Reflection Process. To register for the event, please contact the FfW Europe Secretariat at fitforwork@webershandwick.com. Preview the provisional agenda here.

FfW Denmark welcomes new national approach to health and work
Since the launch of the FfW Danish report in 2009, chronic disease and patient care have remained at the forefront of the health and welfare agenda in Denmark. FfW Denmark is now maximising this new focus, helping to support some exciting new national policies for Danish citizens living with MSDs.

Since the new centre-left Government came into office in October 2011, new healthcare and employment policies have been adopted to include a strong focus on early intervention and workability.
 
As part of the revised healthcare agenda, a strong emphasis is placed on ensuring that people with chronic diseases, including MSDs, receive early diagnosis and early intervention to retain workability and job market relations. The main objective is to use diagnostic centres as a platform for access to early intervention.
 
Diagnostic centres are a significant element in the new healthcare reform plan. Under the new resolution “New diagnosis and treatment guarantee”, patients will have the opportunity to receive a diagnosis within a month or at least to get a plan for a diagnosis within a month. These new diagnostic centres align with the long-standing ambition of FfW Europe Coalition, to improve early diagnosis and intervention for millions of Europeans with MSDs.
 
In tandem, the Danish Government is addressing the current economic climate by implementing a widespread job market reform package to increase job retention.
 
Job retention is the key objective in a package of job market initiatives agreed by the Danish Parliament in June 2012. The job market reform package includes a range of different initiatives with the primary aim to help people, especially the young, to stay fit for work and to avoid long-term ‘parking’ on incapacity benefits.
 
Thousands of Danes, many of whom are individuals with chronic disorders, fail to stay active in the labour market and are forced to rely on permanent incapacity benefits, with severe consequences for individual quality of life and the societal burden of disease. The reform package intends to change this pattern, offering people incentives to stay fit, enter education and improve their opportunities in the job market.
 
FfW Denmark welcomes the new reforms which support FfW objectives and ethos to address the individual and societal burden of chronic diseases on European citizens. By driving change through national policies and practice, Danish citizens will have a greater opportunity to stay fit for life and fit for work.

Bringing health and employment together - Dr.Paul Sissons, The Work Foundation
In our latest expert blog, Dr. Paul Sissons of The Work Foundation discusses the crucial relationship between health and employment services in enabling individuals to remain in work. Dr. Sissons cites some really forward-thinking European examples of health and employment service integration.

Work is generally beneficial for individual health and well-being, although this is subject to job quality. Work also supports self-esteem and financial welfare.
Where individuals develop health conditions, early diagnosis and intervention can be important to support them to remain in the workplace. Facilitating this often requires support from the employer as well as support from health professionals. Critically, these interventions need to inform one another – it is the linking up of health services with employment services and workplace practices that can be most important in enabling individuals to remain in work.

For those who leave employment as a result of their health, many can be helped back to work if the correct health and employment support is available. Evaluation evidence has demonstrated the critical importance of both health and employment factors in influencing who leaves benefits and enters employment.
Within this broad picture it is also important to highlight the unevenness and inequality of experiences. In the UK, access to occupational health services and subsidised medical insurance varies by firm size and sector – larger firms and those in the public sector are significantly more likely to provide these things.  Individuals in more insecure forms of employment, for example those without a permanent employment contract, are less likely to have access to occupational sick pay and are more likely to lose their job and enter the sickness benefits system.

There are a number of European examples where approaches to integrating health and employment services appear to work well. The Finnish concept of Work Ability, which is concerned with extending working lives, has also been piloted in a number of other countries including The Netherlands, Germany and Australia. Work Ability encompasses and integrates four dimensions which influence work experiences – work organisation, values, competence, and health.  In the UK, research on the public partnership approach between National Health Service (NHS) professionals and Job Centre Plus staff, under the Pathways to Work Condition Management Programme, found significant health benefits for participants, including a reduction in levels of anxiety and depression, improved psychological well-being and improved health behaviours.
It is on these types of approaches which we need to build policy which effectively integrates health and employment services and ensures greater equality of individual outcomes.

Fit for Work Europe 
The FfW Europe Coalition,founded in 2010, is a unique multi-stakeholder platform which brings together patients, physicians, policymakers and society representatives, all of whom believe in the importance of early intervention, prevention and management of MSDs in the workplace. The vision of FfW is to shift the perception of MSDs from being disabling conditions to manageable conditions, ensuring that more European citizens stay or return to work, while helping to improve the sustainability of Europe's health and welfare systems.