Managing Pressure to Achieve Excellence

Motivational Speaker for International Conferences / Seminars. Top Team Briefings. Stress Management Training. Nationwide Employee Counselling team. High Performance Executive Coaching. Post Trauma Support & Management. Workplace Bullying.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Latest developments in stress for week ending 25 March 2005

Employers risk flood of claims over work stress
Employers are in danger of being overwhelmed by a flood of compensation claims because they are failing to introduce measures to combat stress in the workplace, according to a new study. The survey of 1,400 personnel managers reveals that 80% of organisations have not introduced employee stress risk assessments required by the Health & Safety Executive. The HSE has targeted the financial services, health and education sectors for particular scrutiny to ensure employers are fulfilling their statutory duties.

Long hours working is destroying family life
Working long hours is having a disastrous effect on family life and parents' health, according to a new report. More people than ever feel obliged to put in extra hours at work - and end up over-eating, drinking too much alcohol and failing to take enough exercise. They also suffer from headaches, exhaustion and depression, and do not see enough of their children, according to the report, ‘Time, Health and the Family: What Working Families Want’. The survey showed that more than half of working parents felt that working long hours was necessary just to get their job done - rising to 73% of parents who worked more than 45 hours a week. More people now work long hours than before. One in five is contracted to work more than 40 hours a week, but 56% of the sample of 646 working parents ended up working more than that. Only 4% are meant to work more than 45 hours, but 21% did so on a regular basis. The result is that many suffer from stress at work. Over a third of working parents felt stressed at work, rising to 45% of those who worked more than 45 hours. The impact on their health could be seen in increased irritability (48%), sleeplessness (44%), lack of exercise (36%) and exhaustion (35%).

Lost productivity costs UK business £15bn a year
Tough measures to counter absenteeism in the workplace are contributing to ‘presenteeism’ which can be equally damaging for business performance, new research has revealed. Presenteeism is when employees come into work despite being too sick, stressed or distracted to be productive. According to the latest data from FirstAssist, nearly a quarter of people calling its legal advice lines were suffering from emotional health issues such as work-related stress or depression, and FirstAssist pointed to a report from human resource consultancy PPC Worldwide which estimates that lost productivity cost UK businesses £15bn in 2004.

Extreme exertion or emotion can spark repeat heart attacks
Compelling evidence indicates that in people with a history of heart disease, physical exertion and emotional stress can trigger heart attacks, some of them fatal. Authors Philip Strike and Andrew Steptoe of University College London point out that the triggers for heart attacks may be quite different from the factors that lead to the development of coronary heart disease over the long term, such as smoking, lack of exercise, work stress, social isolation, anxiety and depression. The review notes that physical exertion has an apparently paradoxical association with triggering severe chest pain, heart attack or sudden death. Physically fit people enjoy a reduced risk of heart attacks, while inactive cardiac patients who suddenly engage in vigorous activity may do so at their peril. Emotional distress, along with natural disasters, war and sporting events may also trigger heart attacks in vulnerable individuals.

The increasing nightmare of sleep deprivation
Lack of sleep is becoming more and more of a nightmare for an increasing number of people who say the pace and stress of modern life is keeping them awake at night, according to research conducted for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy by the Future Foundation. The average Briton gets only six hours 53 minutes of sleep a night - well below the recommended eight hours - but many people, especially women, cannot hope to get even this much. The report found that 27% of the adult population - 12 million people - have at least three bad nights sleep in an average week, and three million adults have a bad night every night. The problem also seems to be getting worse, with the study finding that almost one in four people were finding it increasingly difficult to sleep well. Asked what disturbed their sleep, more people cited anxiety than anything else. 'Fear has become a powerful tool in society,' said Brian Garvey, project manager at the Future Foundation. 'A nervousness permeates our current lives, and this may explain why people believe they are becoming more anxious and that this is disturbing their sleep.'

Obesity 'may reduce life expectancy by five years'
Obesity is predicted to cut life expectancy in America by five years within the next 50 years - and Britain is likely to see a similar trend. Researchers at the University of Illinois say obesity could eventually have more effect on longevity than either cancer or heart disease. Academics in Britain say that the United Kingdom is running just ‘a few years behind the US’ and is already ‘in the throes of an epidemic of obesity among children’. Dr David Wilson, senior lecturer in paediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at Edinburgh University, said obesity would lead to more ill health in early adult life and an increased mortality rate here. Until now most forecasts of life expectancy have shown rises. These are based on historical trends and the fact that medicines have conquered diseases. But the authors of a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine say past estimates failed to consider the ‘obesity epidemic’. More than 30% of Americans (59 million people) are classified as obese.

Taking vitamin E 'could raise risk of heart failure'
Taking vitamin E to cut the risks of heart disease or cancer has no effect and might even increase the chance of heart failure. Researchers in Canada strongly advise against people with existing heart disease or diabetes taking vitamin E supplements. Their study in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed patients for almost seven years and is one of the longest trials of vitamin E supplement use.

Salt in food is main concern for shoppers
Salt has overtaken food poisoning as the main concern for shoppers. A survey on behalf of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has found that the top food-related concerns were salt (57%), food poisoning (56%), fatty food (53%) and sugar in food (50%). The results back up other findings from the poll showing that people are changing their eating habits. More than one-third of the 3,229 adults questioned by Mori claimed to be eating more healthily than a year ago. For example, there has been a big jump in the number of people eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. More than half of those questioned claimed to have eaten five portions the previous day - up from 28% in 2003. However, 55% said their diet was the same and 7% admitted it had got worse.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

UK survey reveals employers� exposure to stress claims

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | When a boss turns into a bully

Saturday, March 26, 2005

ThisisLondon

Telegraph | News | Health warning over working long hours

GNN - Government News Network

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Sleep deprivation also has impact on nation's health

Monday, March 14, 2005

Latest developments in stress week ending 11 March 2005

HSE focuses on key sectors to reduce stress
The HSE is undertaking a nationwide programme of workshops to help employers learn how to implement its new Management Standards on stress. Following the launch of the guidelines in November 2004, it is spending 18 months helping five sectors in particular - finance, health, education and local and central government - to implement best practice in stress prevention and management. The HSE says the main contributors to stress include staff not being able to cope with the demands put upon them; employees having too little control over the way they do their work; lack of support; conflict or bullying; conflicting job roles or lack of understanding regarding roles; and lack of consultation at times of change within the organisation.

Key findings of the Fourth International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases
Among the key findings presented at the conference are that:
· Working longer hours leads to higher hypertension rates in Americans. Previous studies in Japan have shown that people who work more than 40 hours a week have a higher rate of hypertension, the precursor to cardiovascular disease. Haiou Yang and colleagues with the UCI Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health tested this idea with Californian workers between the ages of 18 and 64. They found that people who worked 50 hours a week or more were 13% more likely to report hypertension than people who work less than 40 hours a week.
· Job pressure raises blood pressure all day, all night. Heather Spence Laschinger and Joan Finegan of the University of Western Ontario have identified how job stress levels can be a predictor of burnout rate among nurses. In a study observing 192 nurses, they identified how high psychological demands and low levels of decision-making authority are directly related to work effectiveness and ultimately job burnout. The researchers also discovered that job strain was significantly related to nurses' physical and mental health.
· Job stress makes stopping smoking harder, especially for men. While a stressful job has links to cardiovascular disease, it can also make giving up smoking harder. This is what Francoise Leynen at the Département d'Epidémiologie et de Promotion à la Santé - Ecole de Santé Publique, Université Libre de Bruxelles - in Belgium and colleagues discovered in a survey of 2,821 people from nine companies. Workers who have jobs with high stress and little decision-making authority are less likely to stop smoking, regardless of their socio-economic level and intensity of smoking; and male smokers have an even harder time giving up.

Poor lose out in campaign to combat heart disease
The NHS must do more to address heart disease in the poorest communities, where high levels of smoking and obesity mean people are at the greatest risk of dying from it, says the Healthcare Commission. A study of NHS heart services found that while much has been achieved - with 85% of heart attack sufferers receiving life-saving drugs within 30 minutes of reaching hospital, or within an hour of their first call for help (compared to 59% two years ago) - there is still some way to go. Risk factors for heart disease such as obesity and smoking are on the increase, especially in deprived communities where people are more likely to smoke and eat a diet high in saturated fats. Work to address this is patchy – with few examples of services specifically designed to help with obesity, and little evidence that services to help people stop smoking give the long-term support they need to stay off cigarettes.

Girls aged six ‘unhappy with weight’
According to new research published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, by the age of six, most girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and want to be thinner, and almost half believe they need to go on a diet to lose weight. “Previously, research has focused on adolescence as the likely time for the emergence of body dissatisfaction,” said one of the report’s authors, Hayley Dohnt from Flinders University, South Australia. “But clear evidence has accumulated that a substantial number of pre-adolescent girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and wish to be thinner.” The researchers also found the girls had little concept of body dissatisfaction when they arrived in their reception class at the age of five – suggesting peer pressure at school as a major source of the problem.

Heart benefits of laughter
A good laugh may have repercussions all the way to your heart. For the first time, researchers have found that laughter causes the endothelium - the inner lining of blood vessels - to dilate. This increases blood flow which, of course, is good for overall cardiovascular health. Although this is the first study to show that laughter has such an effect, Dr. Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Centre, who led the study, had previously reported that people with heart disease generally responded to everyday life events with less humour than people who were healthy. And Harvard University researchers have reported that people with an optimistic outlook also have a reduced risk of heart disease. Almost all the volunteers in the Maryland study (95%) experienced increased blood flow while watching a funny film, whereas 74% had decreased flow while observing images of war. Overall, average blood flow increased 22% while laughing and decreased 35% during mental stress, and the magnitude of the changes was similar to the benefit that might be seen with aerobic activity.

Hope for sufferers as diabetic is ‘cured’
Doctors have claimed a breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes after announcing the first British patient to be ‘cured’ by transplant. Richard Lane, 61, was having five insulin injections a day to control the diabetes from which he has suffered for almost three decades. But after three transplants of islet cells (the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas) from three separate donors, he no longer needs injections to control the condition and is leading a normal life. Doctors at King's College Hospital in London, who performed the transplant, said it heralded a new era for the 250,000 patients with Type 1 diabetes like Mr Lane's, who are dependent on daily insulin injections. An estimated 15% of patients with Type 1 diabetes who have uncontrolled hypoglycaemia could be eligible for the procedure at its present stage of development, specialists said.

Reuters Health Information (2005-02-28): Strong mind-body connection in heart disease

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | 'My mental trip switch flipped to off'

PM Online : In sickness and in health

The Observer | UK News | A good sleep is an impossible dream as stress winds up Britons

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Latest developments in stress 8 March 2005

6,800 stress claims ‘waiting to come to court’
The Guardian reports that 6,800 stress claims are waiting to come to court, according to Kevin McCavish, Shoosmiths' employment law specialist. These include personal injury, breach of contract, constructive and unfair dismissal claims, health and safety prosecutions, and claims under the new Disability Discrimination Act. “It really is time for employers to protect themselves by caring for employees' mental health,” he says. This care includes carrying out risk assessments, mental health training, modifying the working environment, offering supervision and support, and flexible rehabilitation back to work according to the needs of the individual.

Strong mind-body connection in heart disease
There is a growing base of evidence supporting the mind-body connection in heart disease, according to a new report published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology – with depression, stress and other common psychosocial risk factors now known to play an important role in the well being and health outcomes of patients with heart disease. “The number of studies looking at the effects of psychology and behaviour on cardiac health is enormous,” says lead author Dr. Alan Rozanski of Columbia University in New York. “They indicate that there are not one but a number of different psychosocial factors that promote heart disease, including depression, social isolation, poor socio-economic status, and discrete chronic stressors like work or marital stress. Moreover, psychosocial stress appears to be as potent as any of the major cardiac risk factors, including diabetes, hypertension, smoking and obesity.”

Nestlé comes clean on calories
Food group Nestlé, maker of brands ranging from Kit-Kat to Nescafe, Golden Grahams and Carnation, is to put the calorie content of its products on the front of packs as part of a drive to “make it easier for consumers to choose a healthy diet”. Every bar of chocolate, packet of pasta, breakfast cereal and yoghurt produced by the world's biggest food group will carry the calorie information. The initiative, also featuring a “nutritional compass” detailing health information on the back of packets, is part of a global plan to promote wellness. Nestlé's global chief executive, Peter Brabeck, said Nestlé had set up a centralised “wellness unit” that will screen all its 8,000 products to identify where nutritional values could be improved.