While watching Good Morning Britain recently, they were discussing how much absenteeism is costing the Country. The slogan was – Keep Britain Working. Now this is a subject that I wrote about before and it has cropped up again.
We are sliding into an avoidable crisis according to a major review in the workplace and it’s apparently costing £85 Billion per year.
According to this report, 2.8 million people of working age are now economically inactive due to ill health conditions and it is rising every year. Imagine that?
By the time we reach 2030, many more will drop out of work unless there is an intervention.
This new report was recently commissioned by the Government and Sir Charlie Mayfield was the author of the “Keep Britain Working” review. If it is conducted by a Government official, then it has to have some weight behind it and not just fantasy figures.
Now, although it is a big problem, there is also an opportunity to fix some of this.
At the moment, it seems that we are living in a culture where over worked GP’s are signing people off on the sick. According to the statistics, 1 in 5 adults are not in work due to illness or sickness.
Now, Charlie has been all round the country seeing what’s going on and discussing this with people and he realised that a dramatic improvement is necessary.
There is a lot of fear when it comes to ill health and people are afraid to talk about it, which then creates more distance.
Nuffield Hospital in Bolton have a good solution for this. They run a joint pain clinic twice a week where dozens of people can join in with the help of a Physiotherapist. So instead of suffering in silence, they are able to share their story and encourage each other to heal. This helps to empower the whole group.
Staying in work despite the discomfort can actually be really helpful because connecting with others is encouraging and good for health. Engaging in social interactions is an important part of getting better for a lot of people.
It has been identified that one of the worst things you can do is to isolate yourself from others as this can actually make the matter worse.
The biggest rise in recent years of long term illness, is of young people suffering from mental health issues and anxiety. This is up 76 percent and it is costing the taxpayer a fortune. Not only that, it is also bad for their well-being.
In my experience, there are a lot of holistic therapies that can be very helpful in the recovery of health related issues.
For mental health issues, there are government backed departments that deal with this and they give a lot of help and support.
When it comes to physical and emotional problems, Holistic therapies can be very helpful indeed.
Reiki, Spiritual Healing and Reflexology bring calm and balance the energies, while Massage, and Aromatherapy ease tired, aching muscles.
Things like Shiatsu work on four different levels – mental, physical, emotional and Spiritual. This type of treatment can be very effective.
And Chair Acupressure is a great way of boosting energy levels while easing pain in the neck, shoulders and back.
There are a lot more therapies than what I have listed here. It’s a case of trying some of them out for yourself to see which one suits you.
Think of Holistic Therapies as essential body maintenance. If you didn’t take your car for service every year, just think what a state it would become. Our bodies give us signals so that we can give care and attention and hopefully treat the symptoms before they escalate into something more serious.
If you can make time for regular treatments, then you will feel better, be more relaxed, healthier, happier and will surely reduce the potential risk of injury, illness and the need for time off work.
If we are healthier, then we can Keep Britain Working, live happier lives and help to ease the strain on the economy.