Writing Fit

This week I was in Bucharest to launch the Romanian ‘Fit for Work’ report. The setting for the launch was the incredible Parliamentary Palace, second only to the Pentagon in size. It dominates the south-western part of the city and many houses, churches and a football stadium were demolished to make way for it and surrounding government buildings.
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The Burden of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases

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Today in Budapest, people living with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) joined leaders in rheumatology from across the EU to demand that policymakers acknowledge the impact RMDs have on a person’s ability to participate in society and so create national plans to address the burden of RMDs.

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This week, the Fit for Work Europe Coalition is hosting an EU Presidency Conference together with The Hungarian Association of Rheumatologists (MRE), The Ministry of National Resources (Government of Hungary) and The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). The Conference will centre on the impact of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs) at EU and national level, as well as ensuring the EU’s Disability Strategy gives due focus to RMDs in the workplace across the EU.

You can download the agenda below for the programme: “Burden of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases: Challenges in Work Capacity and Prevention of Disability in the EU”.

For further details, please contact the Fit for Work Europe Secretariat.

The Burden of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases

Maarten de Wit, Member of the Fit for Work Europe Coalition Steering Group, presented at the European Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science and Industry workshop on Chronic Conditions on 10 December 2010. See his presentation below:

Fit for Work Europe at the EPPOSI (European Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science and Industry) Wor…

This Fit for Work presentation is a working document, designed to capture an overview of successes at EU and at in-country level.  If you would like a copy to use in Fit for Work activities, or to receive a copy of the template to record your own activities, please email us.
Fit for Work Europe National Best Practices

The news that World No 2 golfer Phil Mickelson has been diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis brings into sharp relief the importance of the early diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory conditions if people are to stand the best chance of living normal lives and staying in work.
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We continue to take the ‘Fit for Work’ messages to National Governments wherever we can. Already, since the launch of the Irish report, we have briefed two prominent Irish Government Ministers. We have, among other things, called for a National Clinical Director for MSDs together with the formulation of a National Service Framework on MSDs in order to cement the clinical and labour market priority which Ireland should be given to MSDs in Ireland.

Last week I was a ‘witness’ – together with John Church, CEO of Arthritis Ireland – at a session of the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment in the Irish Parliament – the rough equivalent of a Select Committee here in the UK. I presented the Irish ‘Fit for Work’ report and John and I were questioned for an hour by several Deputies and Senators, who were very interested in the implications of our research for Irish labour market policy.

Earlier in the day Jim Higgins MEP hosted a lunch session in conjunction with Arthritis Ireland for TDs and other opinion-leaders which also focused on the findings and implications of the Irish ‘Fit for Work’ report. Chaired by John Church, the audience heard presentations from Mr Higgins who focused on the growing awareness of the MSD issue in Brussels and Geraldine McCarthy, and eminent Rheumatologist. I also presented the main Fit for Work report findings and talked the audience through our main recommendations. A good debate followed which, among other things, covered the wider labour market status of people with disabilities, the potential for a UK-style ‘Fit Note’ in Ireland and the impact of Health Technology Assessment on access to drug therapies for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

There is a real sense of momentum in Ireland and clear evidence that many of the ‘Fit for Work’ messages are having an impact on the way policy-makers are thinking.

Today was a busy day for those of us keen to spread the word about MSDs at work. In London the Work Charter was launched by the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance. The Work Foundation is happy to support it as it strongly echoes messages from our own Fit for Work? Research which has looked at the factors which help or hinder full participation at work among the 6.5 million UK citizens who have MSDs. There was good coverage of the report on the BBC website.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, I was presenting the results of our EU research to a ‘special interest group’ of MEPs in the European Parliament. Also presenting was Mr. Armindo Silva Head of Unit Social Protection and Inclusion Policies, Employment and Social Affairs Directorate. He explained how the new Directive of MSDs was being drafted and consulted on. I presented some of the key findings of the Fit for Work Europe report, highlighting in particular the need to focus on early intervention. Several MEPs spoke in favour of our findings on the links between MSDs and Mental Health and expressed interest in hearing more on this topic. Finally, Mr Marios Kouloumas, Chairman of Eular-PARE – speaking on behalf of people with Rheumatic diseases – explained the importance of taking into account the patient perspective in policy-making, emphasizing that Rheumatic and inflammatory conditions are not caused by work, but can make staying at work difficult if insufficient support is available. This was a very important point because the forthcoming MSD Directive only covers MSDs which are caused by work and not, by definition, Rheumatic conditions. I find this troubling, and it remains to be seen how this serious omission is dealt with by the European Commission.

I recently spotted coverage of this research, published in The Lancet. It suggests that ‘talking therapies’ such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), especially in group settings, can have a positive impact on recovery from chronic low back pain.

This chimes with the findings of our Fit for Work research which has sought to emphasise the importance of understanding the mental health issues frequently faced by people with MSDs. We found that, for some people, being diagnosed with a chronic condition can increase the risk of depression and anxiety. As a result, people at work might fear disclosing their condition to their employer. In addition, there is evidence that poor mental health can be a bigger barrier to rapid and successful return to work than the physical symptoms of an MSD.

At the launch of our European report in September 2009, Professor Jover from Spain presented data which illustrated that an early intervention for MSDs patients which included a CBT component made a significant difference to return to work rates and yielded a notable economic return. In the autumn of 2010 The Work Foundation will be publishing the results of a further study which is examining the links between chronic conditions and mental health in more detail. Watch this space!