New Free Digital Health and Wellbeing Publication for NHS Staff

Sept. 29, 2011 - PRLog -- This comes as a welcomed initiative in response to the Boorman review and the results highlighted identifying the direct correlation between staff absenteeism and staff health and wellbeing.

‘Balance’ is the quarterly health and wellness magazine dedicated to the NHS workforce. The NHS is one of the world's largest employers with the NHS workforce employees numbering in excess of 1.4 million. ‘Balance’ Magazine showcases best practice, tips and techniques to ensure the health professionals stay healthy. Magazine sections include: wellbeing, beauty, travel, health, diet, fitness and emotional health. Launch features will include innovative stress management, live cookery demonstrations, a sleep clinic, holistic beauty and expert tips to winter proof health.

Dean Royles, director of the NHS Employers organisation, said: "The importance of health and well-being in the workplace is often under-estimated, but it is essential for improving services and making the NHS somewhere where people want to work. There is a powerful business case for good health and well-being, as well as many benefits to staff and patients, and this works best when embraced by all staff - from the board to the ward. We are pleased that the first edition of Balance covers our national staff flu vaccination campaign which, like Balance, aims to reach staff in a friendly, helpful way to encourage them to lead a healthier life."

Extra Info
The first issue will be available on a select 40 NHS Trusts’ intranets across the UK from November 1st 2011 and available for the rest of the Trusts to order from the 15th November 2011.
The content has been guided by Occupational Health Teams, Health and Wellbeing Champions and NHS Employees within a number of NHS Trusts. It will be engaging, topical, entertaining and relevant to health and wellbeing strategies and NHS Employees.

The ‘Balance’ team will help NHS Trusts deliver results based on their Health and Wellbeing Strategies’ directly in the workplace.

Notes for Editors:
Background info

Combined Media was established in 2006.

The Directors have over 40 years experience of NHS staff communication between them, overseeing the supply and implementation of the largest number of Trust-wide staff contact systems and SMS systems to the NHS in England.

Our digital eMagazine ‘YourChoice’ was launched in 2007 to give NHS staff, many of whom find website access at work strictly limited, a first class lifestyle publication of their own with portals to the wider web built in.

YourChoice was designed to provide staff access to great lifestyle content, fantastic benefits and discounts, whilst providing an unbiased independent platform for organisations that have a responsibility to communicate with NHS Staff across the country. Informative articles are supplied by a range of NHS bodies, such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, who can broadcast messages Trust-wide without the complexities of dealing with NHS Trusts individually.

Building on our original network of relationships YourChoice is now available to staff in approximately 100 NHS Trusts. The entertaining and informative content has enabled us to position YourChoice on a growing number of Trust intranets for staff to access whist at work, delivering content straight to the desktop whist ensuring staff do not have to go on to the internet to see it.

Working with some fantastic partners over the years we have raised thousands of pounds for Trust charities and, with the help of NHS Trusts, continue to find new and innovative ways of delivering content, benefits and discounts and raising much needed money for worthy causes.

Additional information
• More than a third of the NHS workforce are in moderate to very poor mental health, with many expressing concern about intimidation from patients and their relatives.
• Hospitals with worse staff health are less productive and have higher rates of superbug infection, unnecessary use of agency workers and higher patient mortality rates.
• More than three-quarters of staff believe that the state of their health affects patient care.
• Approx. 40% undertake exercise less than the Government’s three recommended occasions a week.
• Women and long-term employees are more likely to report in sick.
• Nearly half of all NHS staff absence is accounted for by musculoskeletal disorders and more than a quarter by stress, depression and anxiety

Links
http://www.balancemagazine.co.uk
http://www.yourchoicemagazine.com
http://conference.nhsemployers.org/Pages/Default.aspx

Images available on request

Contact:
Name: Abigail Ridgway, Head of Marketing
Tel: 0161 2600 008
Name: Cait Hall, Editor
Tel: 0845 9000 890