NEWS
Employers need a greater understanding of cancer care to support employees
Many providers now offer reward schemes for good health behaviours (when employees take part in exercise, meet a step count, buy healthy food or join a mindfulness session, for example), and actively encourage employees to take responsibility for their own health. Screening plays a hugely important part in improving cancer outcomes. For example, lung cancer can be screened with an at-home sample test kit, with results in less than two weeks. The survival rate of five+ years, 2 and half for lung cancer is 61% if caught at stage one, 39% at stage two, 15% at stage three, and only 4% at stage four. However, currently, nearly half (47%) of all cases of lung cancer in the UK are not diagnosed until stage four.
Sunday 5th June was Cancer Survivors’ Day. This was a timely reminder that cancer is often survivable, given the right lifestyle, screening, diagnosis, and care. All of which are factors that employers are in a position to support. Debra Clark, head of specialist consulting, Towergate Health & Protection, says: “Employee cancer services are often underutilised. Cancer care is included within a lot of employee benefits products but often the employers themselves are not aware of the full extent of the cover they may have arranged for their employees. Yet it’s vital that they’re aware: better understanding of the support available can lead to better health outcomes for employees.”
Many cancers have very high survival rates. Melanoma, prostate, testicular, thyroid, follicular, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and breast cancer all have a survival rate of over 80% for five+ years, 2 and half (50%) of people diagnosed with cancer in England and Wales survive their disease for ten years or more (3). What is important, however, is for employees to receive good mental and physical care to help them through.
Many cancers are preventable. Around four in 10 UK cancer cases every year could be prevented, which equates to more than 135,000 every year. This is why it is so important for employees to be provided with health and wellbeing support. In the UK, smoking is the largest cause of cancer, and being overweight or obese is the second biggest cause. Employers can assist with both factors by engaging employees with lifestyle, exercise, nutrition support and specific support, such as smoking cessation programmes.
A perhaps surprising amount of cancer care is available to employees via the workplace. Group private medical insurance (PMI) has a wide range of cancer support. This often includes fast-tracked access to diagnosis and treatment, access to medicines and additional support, which may not be available on the NHS.
Employee Fear: One in six UK workers are worried that revealing their mental health concerns could result in job loss
Over the last 12 months, two in three employees have experienced worse mental health at work, compared to the previous year. As remote and hybrid working environments continue to be adopted by more UK businesses, evidence suggests that companies have struggled to adapt their mental health support processes. One in three employees feel less able to raise mental health concerns during remote meetings, often causing any issues to go unnoticed.
Debra Clark concludes: “Survival rates for cancer can be high if the right steps are taken. Employers are in a position to make a real difference but only if they understand the support available and help employees utilise that support before, during, and after cancer.”
The Employee Mental Health and Remote Working report – conducted by virtual events and in-person team building company Wildgoose – asked employees from 129 different UK companies whether their mental health at work had improved or worsened over the past year. It also asked whether these employees felt comfortable raising any mental health concerns with their employers and what they believed would happen if they did.
Study reveals increasing issues around reporting employee wellness whilst hybrid working, as 95% of UK employees feel that their company doesn’t do enough to identify and support those with mental health concerns. One in six UK employees feel worried that raising mental health concerns with their company could put them at risk of losing their job, a new report into employee mental health and remote working has found. Throughout the UK, 86% believe that their workplace is not a safe space for employees to be open about mental health.
Just over one in eight companies in the UK don’t have a process in place for remote workers to report mental health concerns. This is most prevalent in SMEs, where this figure nearly doubled to one in five not having a process in place
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