Task leader: Foundation IRCCS Neurological Institute ''Carlo Besta'' (FINCB), Milan

Task description: The number of people living with one or more chronic diseases, CDs, has dramatically increased in recent decades and this has social and economic implications for the employment sector.

Work is a protective factor for improving the quality of life and wellbeing of people with CDs. Working is not only a right, but affects a person’s social role as well as their health.

CDs have a profound impact on individuals in terms of negative employment outcomes, such as reduced workforce participation and early retirement, resulting in the loss of income and increasing the risk of poverty for the person, as well for his/her family.

CDs also affect employers: absence from work, issues connected to employability, costs of retaining or replacing workers, and internal company policies are aspects that are crucial for hiring as well as re-integrating persons with CDs.

A CHRODIS PLUS Training Tool will be developed to help employers understand the operational benefits of the inclusion, integration and reintegration of people suffering from CDs.

Task leader: National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)

Task description: Workplaces offer an ideal setting for reaching out and supporting health promotion in large audiences. What and when we eat and drink, how much of our time is sedentary, even our social relationships and mental and overall wellbeing are to a great extent determined by our working environments.

There is an increasing need to support employers in better understanding the benefits of preventing CDs and to implement prevention activities by adapting the workplace for identified high-risk populations. In a broad sense, “adaptation of the work place” is understood as being any (sustained) policy/activity/process/change in infrastructure that is undertaken to enhance the health and wellbeing of employees, whether they are healthy, at risk, or are already suffering from one or several chronic diseases.

The CHRODIS PLUS Toolkit for the Adaptation of the Workplace will be an evidence-based, practice-oriented guide for employers to adapt to their work environments to support healthy lifestyles and prevent and manage chronic diseases in work settings.

Task leader: Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)

Task description: CHRODIS PLUS recommendations will be developed for identified best practices in regards to Health Promotion and Diseases Prevention in the workplace for people with CDs, including access, maintenance, reintegration and stay at work, with particular emphasis on the issues of multi-morbidity and employment.

Recommendations targeting policy-makers will ensure that legislative frameworks provide better accessibility to existing employment support for persons with CDs.

Individuals with chronic diseases often experience work-related problems, leading to negative consequences at the individual, national and European level. The rising prevalence of persons with chronic diseases as well as the current economic crisis make this issue even more problematic, requiring actions in terms of innovative strategies to improve the participation of these persons in the labour market. Policy recommendations to develop human capital oriented to the employment sector will be developed, tackling the employment sector as an area where care for people with CDs should be improved through policies and the implementation of best practices.

CHRODIS PLUS recommendations will be based on identified best practices in regards to Health Promotion and Diseases Prevention in the workplace for people with CDs, including access, maintenance, reintegration and stay at work, with particular emphasis on the issues of multi-morbidity and employment. CDs can only be tackled effectively if Member States adopt a holistic inter-sectoral approach within the concept of “Health in All Sectors”. Furthermore, recommendations targeting policy-makers will ensure that legislative frameworks provide better accessibility for existing employment support to persons with CD.

Timeline: October 2019 – August 2020.

• Based on material collected in Task 8.1 and 8.2, as well as on the results of the meeting with WP6, a set of recommendations will be developed. They will also be based on previous material developed for other EU and international projects (e.g. Pathways, PH Work, etc)
• The draft will be submitted at month 28 to the relevant stakeholders in collaboration with EBC, ECDA, EPF, EFNA and other relevant European organizations, following a policy dialogue.

The deliverable to be produced by the task: D8.3 “Policy recommendations for health promotion and disease prevention in the workplace for people with CDs, including access to, reintegration and stay at work”

• September 2017 - Kick-off meeting
• October 2018- January 2019 – Development training tool and Toolkit
• February 2019 - Training tool test pilot
• March or April 2019 – Expert Meeting in collaboration with WP6
• April 2019 – Test Pilot of the Toolkit
• December 2019 – Deliverable 8.1
• February 2020 – Deliverable 8.2
• April 2020- Policy Recommendations
• April 2020 - Final WP conference

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TIMELINE CHART

“One in five people of working age have a chronic illness. Therefore, the topic of chronic diseases in the work setting cannot be overlooked. To combat discrimination against them, workplaces need to adapt to accommodate the needs of workers with chronic diseases.
Our mission is to improve:

• work access and the participation of people with chronic diseases,
• to support employers in implementing health promotion and chronic disease prevention activities in the workplace, and
• to reinforce decision-makers’ abilities to create policies that improve the access, reintegration, maintenance and retention of people with chronic diseases.”

MATILDE LEONARDI
The Foundation of the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute (FINCB), Milan, Italy
([email protected])

JAANA LINDSTROM
National Institute for Health and welfare (THL), Finland
([email protected])

• The Foundation of the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute (FINCB), Milan, Italy
• National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Finland
• The Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)
• The French National Cancer Institute (INCa)
• Technical University of Dresden (TUD)
• European Patients Forum (EPF)
• National Institute of Health (ISS)
• National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)
• National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ)
• Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia (CSJA)
• Semmelweis University (SU)
• Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos (VULSK)
• Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (UCSC)

• EBC European Brain Council (Fred Destrebeq)
• EFNA European Federation of Neurological Association (Heather Clark, Donna Walsh)
• ECDA European Chronic Disease Alliance (Benedicte Faure)
• EASPD European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (Luk Zelderloo)
• FIOH Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (Jaana Laitinen)
• VTT Technical Research Institute Finland (Eeva Rantala)
• The Danish Committee for Health Education (Lars Munter)