Resources
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In early 2021 the SOM worked with Public Health England on a series of COVID-19 Work, worklessness and wellbeing webinars...
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to how people work and how business is conducted. The UK has entered a major recession, meaning there is considerable uncertainty about future employment and business continuity...
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These new guidelines from the University of Glasgow and SOM, for the first time, take account of community prevalence, vaccination status and previous COVID-19 infection in the risk assessment....
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This leaflet offers guidance from Occupational Health (OH) Professionals on how managers can support workers to get back to work with ongoing symptoms following COVID-19 infection and Long COVID....
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COVID-19 has had a rapid and sometimes devastating effect on the lives of individuals, which can be heightened by age, gender and ethnicity. Dealing with the impact of COVID-19 has added significant stress and complexity to day-to-day activities. It is not surprising that many business...
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This leaflet offers guidance for workers from Occupational Health Professionals on how to manage getting back to work after COVID-19 infection and Long COVID. Occupational Health Professionals specialise in health and work and have professional ...
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Working from home and educating children is a real challenge for parents, employers, teachers, and the children themselves. This situation can be further exacerbated for those children with disabilities, or for those in poverty or from deprived areas. This guidance is aimed at employers and parents as...
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The coronavirus pandemic shifted various work practices, one of which was a transition for individuals from working in an office environment to working from home. Home workers can be considered as those who homework occasionally (ad-hoc), those who homework...
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This document provides evidence-based guidance from the HSE and NHS England for occupational health practitioners to undertake health surveillance during the current COVID-19 pandemic. All client-facing clinicians face a heightened risk of exposure to COVID-19...
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Mass adoption of face coverings are an essential part of a control approach to minimise transmission of COVID-19. Mandatory use is now required in many situations. However, where use is not mandated, merely recommended, there is partial compliance due partly to...
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A simple evidence-based tool that summarises vulnerability for COVID-19 taking into account multiple medical conditions, ethnicity, sex and BMI; using age as the standard because the risk relating to age is so much greater than that for any other factor. The result is...
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Managing return to work in the new normal with COVID-19 needs social as well as possibly medical action. Work is good for us and we need to get back to good, safe jobs - comfortable when we are well and supportive when we are not...
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SOM members now have access to a free app finder new app library. The app finder has been developed by ORCHA, the world’s leading health app evaluation and advisor organisation. It will allow members to find the best...
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In England, the Government advice is still to work from home if possible but, where that is not possible, then the Government is encouraging workers to return to work if they can do so safely....
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There is good evidence from scientifically conducted reviews that the most predictive risk factors for the onset of post traumatic mental ill-health are those which operate after the traumatic incident...
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Occupational Health (OH) advises about the interaction between health and work, aiming to protect staff from harm at work, maximise health...
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Over recent weeks, it is likely that most Occupational Health Professionals (OHPs) will be inundated with requests for decisions on whether employees are fit to come to work and what the ever-changing government advice...
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Thanks to Dr Linda Bell and Christine Poulter for their contributions. This document is a compilation of advice from a number of sources and is designed to help OH personnel in providing...
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In the light of advice from Public Health England on COVID-19, HSE has set out in guidance below, a proportionate and flexible approach to enable health/medical surveillance to continue...
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COVID-19 pandemy: Experiences from the International Centre for Rural Health...
Blogs
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In late September 2019, a cluster of unusual flu-like cases were reported to the WHO by the Chinese authorities. By the end of December, the phones and email inboxes were hot with calls and messages from senior researchers and clinicians all around the world, concerned tha...
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Last week the news broke that there is a very real possibility of an effective vaccine for Coronavirus becoming available early next year. Stock markets jumped and although Donald Trump continued his insistence that the US election was rigged in his opponent’s favor no-one seemed to take much notice...
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There’s no doubt at all that since 1796, when Jenner first introduced a vaccine against smallpox, vaccination has saved countless lives. For me, it’s now almost impossible to imagine not protecting our children against serious childhood illnesses or failing to ensure that we are ‘covered’ by vaccinations...
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Occupational health plays a vital role in supporting employers to plan and implement an effective framework of health and wellbeing. COVID-19 has showcased the true value of occupational health, the value of which will last well beyond the pandemic. I sit alongside safety and wellbeing teams, but also human resources...
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Since lockdown, there has been a dramatic increase in working from home in some way or another. Pre-Coronavirus approximately 5% of the working population worked from home (ONS, 2020); interim results from the Institute of Employment Studies Homeworker Wellbeing survey report that figure is now 71%....
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Occupational health company, Healthwork, with the ECB created and managed the concept of ‘bio-safe bubbles’ at Emirates Old Trafford (Manchester), the Ageas Bowl (Southampton), Derbyshire County Cricket Club and Worcestershire County Cricket Club, to mitigate the transmission risk of COVID-19 and ensure the safety...
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Many organisations are being forced to make difficult decisions around workforce planning as a consequence of the challenges arising from the pandemic. This includes restructuring, redeployment, furlough and redundancies...
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We’ve seen a continued focus on conversations around menopause in the workplace. In some cases, these have taken a different course after lockdown. Menopause isn’t going to go away simply because of COVID-19. It remains a priority for workplace agendas, perhaps with a...
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Occupational health (OH) services have been much involved in the response to the pandemic, concentrating their efforts in addressing the risks to workers and the mitigation of these. Advice and guidance to individual employees and organisations have played a crucial role in...
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Ensuring mental wellbeing can be particularly challenging within the Nursing profession. Nurses are known to promote health and wellbeing to others; they generally aim to “nurse” people back to health, but there is also a vital role in Nurses “nursing” people to a...
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Occupational Health (OH) and Human Resource (HR) practitioners share a common goal of creating an open, honest and high performing workplace, where employee’s health and wellbeing are valued, not just in terms of...
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For the last two months the message has been clear: Stay At Home. But home is not a safe place for everyone, and that is particularly the case for families experiencing domestic abuse. Some of these families will be your clients and colleagues...
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Workers with health conditions considered to make them extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 were advised by the government to observe ‘shielding’ for 12 weeks...
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During lockdown, in general physical health comprises of exercise, diet and lifestyle, sleep and managing health conditions. Exercise is of particular importance as I think this has been impacted upon the most during the lockdown...
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Supporting people back to work is not just about the economy - there are substantial personal and social benefits. These benefits though come from good jobs, jobs that are safe and supportive...
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Organisations face increasing uncertainty and challenges created by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 virus. Attention is now moving to the relaxation of lockdown restrictions, considering what...
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In the past four years as NHS England Medical Director in Greater Manchester I’ve not had to do much occupational medicine. In fact I’ve deliberately stayed back to avoid dabbling but there have been many moments when my prior practice has been invaluable...
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Dr James Quigley shares his experiences of supporting the executive leadership team at NHS Nightingale North West (NHSN NW) to set up a pop-up OH service for the field hospital in Manchester...
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On 28th April 2020 it is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. The International Labour Organization (ILO) started the World Day initiative in 2003 in order to stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work...
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The COVID -19 outbreak has already disrupted the global economy, and the demand for hospital care is exceeding the capacity of many nations’ health systems...
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he recent COVID-19 situation has exacerbated a workforce crisis in healthcare. A global workforce shortage of occupations such as nursing1 mean that facing any kind of surge in demand becomes a major challenge...
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As the COVID-19 crisis escalated, it became clear very quickly that managers in the NHS required help in supporting staff with underlying health conditions to remain in work and with redeployment...
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The past few weeks have brought monumental change across every aspect of society. Work, health care, social care, education, family life, have all had to undergo significant alterations to deal with the health...
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At the end of Week 2 of the ‘New Normal’, thousands of UK workers will be reflecting on whether working from home is quite the liberating experience they had always imagined...
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Technology and data are a crucial part of halting the spread of the COVID-19 - mapping the arch of the virus, determining who is vulnerable, defining priorities for intervention, and developing...
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Recent steps taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus means that many more people will be working from home for the foreseeable future. The good news is that working from home can improve...
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COVID-19 is setting up to be the defining event of our lifetimes. Wars, disasters and tragedy happen with distressing frequency across the world - for most of us, it is others who experience these...
