Well-being in Work: understanding the relationship between health, well-being and work
About WiW
Introduction
Work is a big part of our daily lives, second only to sleeping in terms of time spent on daily activities according to the National Office of Statistics (2005). But how does our work affect our health and well-being?
During 2007 and early 2008 we invited all staff at two of the largest employers in Merthyr Tydfil - the County Borough Council and the North Glamorgan NHS Trust - to get involved in the project by completing questionnaires, joining focus groups, or being interviewed, so that we could get a fuller picture of health and well-being at work. This stage of the project is now complete and you can read about what we found by clicking here.
The Well-being in Work project involves a series of studies that will explore how work affects our health and well-being, and vice versa, in order to develop new ways of improving the quality of our working lives. But to achieve this we need help from the Merthyr Tydfil communityProgramme of Research
The Well-being in Work partnership was formed to carry out a programme of research that focused on the complex relationship between health and work and to explore ways in which individuals can have a better, healthier working life. The project is being carried out jointly by Cardiff, Keele and Swansea Universities, and is being funded by the Wales Centre for Health.
The Well-being in Work initiative began its programme of research in the local Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil, but in the future the project will be extended across the South Wales Valleys and the rest of the UK. The programme will be completed in three distinct stages:
- Stage 1: Profiling the community of Merthyr Tydfil
- Stage 2: Investigating the impact of health on work using surveys, interviews and focus groups
- Stage 3: Developing work retention and rehabilitation interventions.
To find out more about each of the three stages click here.
Professor Chris Main at Keele University, a lead member of the Well-being in Work research team, and co-author of 'The Back Book' commented that:
"This cutting-edge research is being carried out in Merthyr Tydfil, and has potentially wide-reaching benefits for individuals, employers and communities in Wales and across the UK.
The Well-being in Work project is the first of its kind in the UK, using a variety of techniques to gather in-depth information about health and well-being in work, and track changes over time. It takes a new and positive approach, investigating what people think about their health, well-being, and work, and what kind of improvements they would like to see in their working lives."
Most of us will have a health condition at some point that will affect our everyday lives. Some of the most common health problems that can affect us at work include depression, aches, pains, colds and flu. As Dr Rhiannon Buck, a Health Psychologist at Cardiff University who is a senior member of the Well-being in Work team comments:
"Finding out more about health and work is important to all of us, and exploring new ways to improve our health and well-being in work could have enormous benefits for us as individuals, and for our families, employers, and the local and national economy."
Previous research from the Unum Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research, Cardiff University, has found that work is generally good for us, although there are some exceptions. The benefits of remaining at work or returning to work as soon as possible after illness are well documented, as it improves recovery and health outcomes. However, being out of work due to ill health brings with it a whole host of problems, including loss of income and social contact, and poorer physical and mental health. In fact, the risk to health of long-term worklessness is equivalent to smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day.
The relationship between health and work is complex, with personal, cultural, and work factors playing an important role. Professor Ceri Phillips from the University of Wales Swansea, who is a Health Economist and one of the lead researchers in the Well-being in Work group commented:
"People can respond very differently to illness, and jobs can vary widely in their nature and quality. The places where people live are also important; health can vary widely between different communities in Wales. Unfortunately, these things are not independent of each other, and in communities where we see poorer health, this is likely to be accompanied by other disadvantages, including fewer jobs and higher rates of poverty in both children and adults. There is an urgent need to improve health, well-being and opportunities for employment in these areas."
