Guest blog by Dr Roxane L. Gervais, Chartered Psychologist and Registered Occupational Psychologist 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…
Guest blog by Stephen Bevan, Head of HR Research Development at the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) 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. Trying to…
Guest blog by Dr Charlie Vivian, Consultant Occupational Physician at Icarus Health 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. But suddenly, we…
Guest blog by Professor Gail Kinman and Dr Kevin Teoh 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 wellbeing, enhance work-life balance and boost…
Guest blog by Kavita Reddi, co-founder of Voxta 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 vaccines and cures rely on biotechnology. Data informed…
Guest blog by Jackie Barber, Business Psychologist, The Wellbeing Project Working from home was once the perquisite of the fortunate few, but new studies suggest that this work arrangement is slowly but steadily rising. A CIPD report (1) into flexible working shows that as many as 33% of employees…
SOM roundtable: Sleep and the workplace – November 2019 Sleep and fatigue in the workplace The discussion was opened by Dr Karen Robertson. Dr Robertson pointed out that, although raising awareness of the need for an adequate amount of sleep is key, it should be acknowledged that not everyone…
Guest blog by John Harrison, Senior Medical Advisor, National Police Wellbeing Service The launch of a new National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS) in April 2019 [1] marked a significant milestone in the development of the understanding of the approach to police welfare. Historically, support has…
By Lesley Kezhu Wang There are many issues with menopause at work - negatively impacting the wellbeing of female employees and productivity - action must be taken. Speakers included Carolyn Harris MP, Rachel Maclean MP, Janet Trowse from Network Rail, Rachel Suff, Employment Relations Policy Advisor…
Guest blog by Dr Paul J Nicholson OBE, Chair, APPG Report Writing Committee Throughout this decade our professional bodies have repeatedly expressed concern at the falling numbers of occupational medicine specialists. In 2006, the number of OM trainees peaked at 154 (compared with 129 in 2000). The…
Guest blog by Dr Lisa Curran All over the UK, medical graduates start their first hospital post on the 7th August 2019. What an important day this is. 23 years ago, I was there too. August 1996 to February 1997, I was Medical House Officer for Dr Gallen at Wycombe General Hospital. February 1997 to…
Guest blog by Dr Drushca Lalloo, lead author of The Value of Occupational Health Research report As a follow-on from the Society of Occupational Medicine’s (SOM) 2017 report Occupational health: the value proposition and its 2018 report Occupational Health: The Global Evidence and Value, a new…