UK article: Occupational Health the key to helping employers understand, and support, less well-known conditions

[Sly Saint]

Less common, or less well-known or understood, health conditions such as auto-immune diseases, ME, epilepsy and MS can often go under the radar from a workplace health support perspective. But they are still important for employers and, especially with the NHS under such pressure from Covid-19, something occupational health should be addressing, argues Christine Husbands.

When we think about long-term health conditions, illnesses such as cancer, cardiac and stroke may spring to mind. While it is true these conditions do make up a large proportion of the chronic conditions affecting employees, there is also a vast range of other chronic conditions with significant long-term effects that often go unrecognised by employers.

Yet these other, less well-known conditions, when added together, affect a significant number of working-age people.

Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME), also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that the prevalence for ME/CFS in the UK is between 0.2% and 0.4%.

Sufferers experience extreme tiredness and other physical symptoms that make it very difficult to carry out everyday activities, people often have to make some major lifestyle changes. Particular implications can include:

• As there is no specific diagnosis, a diagnosis is based on ruling other things out. Patients can go through many years of self-doubt before a formal diagnosis is arrived at and this can take up to 5 years, many people give up.
• It is generally misunderstood or not recognised by family, friends and employers which adds to the self-doubt of the individual.
• This condition is also often not understood within the health care profession.
• Access to therapies and services are often not available within the NHS until there is a formally diagnosed condition.
• The impact on physical health and emotional wellbeing can be devastating especially when there is no formal diagnosis.
• Work can be significantly affected, with most people needing to have flexibility or reduced hours and some people needing to give up altogether, adding financial worries to the mix.

https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/o...stand-and-support-less-well-known-conditions/

 

[Sly Saint]

Long COVID: Who does it affect and what are the risks for employers?

Long COVID: Who does it affect, is it a disability – and what are the risks for employers? Five big HR questions on the condition answered

There is no test to diagnose, instead the condition is characterised by a common set of symptoms. They greatly vary, but the most common side effects are fatigue, post-exertional malaise – where health worsens after physical or mental exertion – and brain fog. Long COVID has drawn comparisons with chronic fatigue syndrome, a post-viral condition diagnosed by unexplained symptoms including tiredness. Similarly, the condition appears to be unpredictable in its impact as an individual can feel fine one day and unwell the next.

https://www.thehrdirector.com/featu...e-big-hr-questions-on-the-condition-answered/

very annoying that PEM is mentioned as a key symptom of long covid, whereas for ME/CFS its 'tiredness'.