Healthcare professionals

Whether you are a GP, nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or other healthcare professional, there are things you can do to promote people’s health and wellbeing.

How can you help?

• Examine the evidence on the links between health and work - remaining in or swiftly returning to work can be important to your patients.
• Consider the consequences of advising patients to stay off work - this advice is a major clinical intervention and could have significant and long-term consequences. Do patients need to be off work while waiting for treatment?
• Play an active part in supporting your patients’ rehabilitation and return to work - this is part of your clinical role.
• Explain to them the links between work and health.
• Talk to them about their barriers to work and how to overcome them.
• Discuss with them what they can do, as well as what they can't.
• Agree realistic goals and expectations of healthcare and returning to work.
• Encourage them to speak to their employers.
• Help to ensure that, wherever possible, treatments and interventions are provided quickly and at times that suit people in work.

The benefits to patients

• There are strong links between health and work.
• Being out of work is bad for people’s physical and mental health.
• People out of work have higher rates of GP consultation, medication consumption and hospital admission.
• Being in work is generally good for your patients’ health.
• Returning to work improves health, reduces psychological distress and can aid a speedier recovery.
• The health benefits of work strongly outweigh the health risks.