Archive for the ‘Health Care’ Category
Bullying Is Epidemic
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Two accepted Public Health thresholds are 200 cases per 100,000 (p=0.002) and the 1996 UK Dept of Health estimate of 400 cases per 100,000 (p=0.004). Relying on our WBI-Zogby US prevalence statistics, 18.5 million workers are currently being bullied. The 200 case threshold is only 294,000 cases and the 400 case threshold is 588,000. Using either epidemiological standard, bullying is an epidemic. Because it spans the continents, it is also pandemic! Finally, a non-technical definition of an epidemic is a disease that spreads more quickly and more extensively among a group of people than would “normally” be expected. Help us all if abusive interpersonal misconduct at work has become the norm and routinely expected.
Tags: epidemic, pandemic, WBI-Zogby
Posted in Bullying Tutorials, Health Care, Science | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
Dying Poor & Uninsured in America
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
The Institute of Medicine and the Urban Institute produced a report last year that tracked deaths attributable to being uninsured in America. In the latest year surveyed (2006) 22, 211 people died. Also we know that being underinsured can prevent getting life-saving treatment for diseases that insurers refuse to cover.
Tags: Ehrenreich, Goldman Sachs, health insurance, Institute of Medicine, poverty, recession, underinsured, uninsured, Urban Institute, working poor
Posted in Health Care, Social Justice | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
Paid Sick Leave : Healthy Families Act (Federal)
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
On June 11 in the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Labor, a hearing will be held for House version of the paid sick leave bill called the Healthy Families Act [In the House, it is HR 2460 (Rep. Rosa DeLauro, CT) and in the Senate it is S 1152 (Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA)]. The modest bill would guarantee 7 paid sick days per year for workers at businesses with 15 or more employees, to be used to recover from routine illness, care for a sick family member, or seek services to recover from domestic violence.
The folks at MomsRising.org want you to sign their petition alerting your U.S. Rep and Senators to support the respective bills. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will certainly fight this pro-employee health bill. They will claim it interferes with employers’ ability to “compete.”
Read the related report exposing America’s dismal denial of paid sick leave.
Stay tuned.
Tags: Chamber of Commerce, DeLauro, Healthy Families Act, HR2460, Kennedy, MomsRising, occupational health, S1152, sick leave
Posted in Health Care, Legislative Campaign, Social Justice | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Guest blog: Another USPS Workplace Tragedy
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
By Stephen D. Musacco, Ph.D. author of Beyond Going Postal
On the morning of June 2, 2009, a city letter carrier went to work and reportedly fatally shot himself in the head in the locker room at a postal facility in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Gaston Gazette online news report stated that the “Gastonia Police are investigating an apparent suicide this morning at the post office. . . . One of the employees is inside dead from a gunshot wound.”
Tags: arbitration, Fields, going postal, Musacco, NALC, suicide, USPS, violence policy, WBI-LC
Posted in Employer Action/Inaction, Health Care, Social Justice | 125 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Shiftwork Destroys Employee Health
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
A marvelous article by Andrew Watterson in the summer 2009 UK Hazards Magazine reviews some of the newest occupational health research regarding the impact of working night and graveyard shifts (and rotating with dayturn) on employee health. There are increased risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, accidents, pregnancy problems, clinical depression and divorce. The article describes some of the biology involved.
This British article criticizes their government agency HSE. Know that the U.S. OSHA is even less protective of workers.
How realistic are limits when employers want to offer 24/7 operating hours? Nurses are especially vulnerable because patient care requires 24/7 coverage.
No summary can do justice to this detailed article. Read it in its entirety @ Hazards Magazine..
Tags: Add new tag, Hazards Magazine, NIOSH, occupational health, UK
Posted in Health Care, Science | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Workplace Bullying & Health Care for All
Friday, June 5th, 2009
62% of all US bankruptcies are due to unaffordable costs for medical care
Regardless of personal political leanings, it’s time to form an alliance between the US Workplace Bullying movement which represents 24% of the US workforce who lose jobs due to bullying (64% of the 37%, see the WBI-Zogby statistics) and the Single Payer Health Insurance movement.
The triple whammy: Employer exposes worker to abuse/Worker with declining health loses job for daring to complain/Unemployed, uninsured worker’s health declines further
(more…)
Tags: employee health, medical bankruptcy, single payer
Posted in Health Care, Science, Social Justice | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Sick but Afraid to Lose Your Job?
Friday, June 5th, 2009
President Obama said “stay home” if sick. But how many can afford to follow that medically sound, pro-public health advice?
The flu scare revealed yet another gap between the myth of American exceptionalism and reality. American employers would have you believe they take seriously the health of their employees. But a study of sick leave policies (called Contagion Nation) from the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that at least 40% of the private-sector US workforce does not have paid sick days or leave.
Tags: exceptionalism, sick leave
Posted in Health Care, Social Justice | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
Helpful Therapist in Portland, OR
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Those who familiar with WBI over the years know how much we have wanted to be able to refer bullied targets to safe, competent and helpful mental health professionals. Here’s our first recommendation, ever.
Dr. Denise Lopez Haugen, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Square Peg Psychological
503-723-5053
17998 S Anderson Rd, Oregon City, OR 97045-9001
drhaugen@squarepegpsychological.com
Dr. Denise is a graduate of WBI University and an Oregon licensed clinical psychologist (PsyD) who can help you. Tell her WBI sent you.
If you do not live in the area but want telephone counseling, call her and request an appointment.
Read our advice about Selecting Therapists and what different kinds there are.
If your therapist is interested in learning more about Workplace Bullying dynamics in order to specialize, have him or her attend WBI University.
How have counselors treated you? Have they understood? Have they hurt? Please tell us here so others know who to trust and who to avoid. Make sure you name the city along with the person’s name.
Tags: Lopez Haugen, referral, therapists
Posted in Bullying Tutorials, Health Care | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
2009 Work, Stress and Health
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Nov. 5-8, 2009
Work, Stress and Health 2009
Global Concerns and Approaches
The 8th International Conference
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Sponsored by the American Psychological Association / National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety / Society for Occupational Health Psychology
Tags: APA, conference, NIOSH, SOHP
Posted in Conferences, Events, Health Care | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Helen Green Wins Court Victory – UK
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
British Worker Awarded £800,000 (US$1.5 million) in Bullying Payout
August 2, 2006
A City (London) worker has won £800,000 in damages from Deutsche Bank in a landmark workplace bullying case. The award is said by legal experts to be particularly high and likely to be appealed.
High Court judge Justice Owen said that the campaign at the secretariat division of the international banking firm Deutsche Bank Group Services (UK) Ltd. against Helen Green involved a “relentless campaign of mean and spiteful behaviour designed to cause her distress” that left Green on some occasions crying silently at her desk. She worked there from 1997 to 2001.
Owen awarded her a total of $1.5 million for pain and suffering and loss of past and future earnings. He also ordered the bank to pay her legal costs, beginning with an interim payment of $650,000.
The largest part of the award is the £640,000 awarded for future loss of earnings and a pension, and it is this portion which marks the case out as unusual.
“We have seen cases like this before a number of times but the court has awarded such a large amount because it took the view that this person would not be able to work at this salary level for a long time in the future,” said Tom Potbury, a lawyer specialising in employment law at Pinsent Masons. (more…)
Tags: Deutsche Bank, Green, UK
Posted in Court Rulings, Employer Action/Inaction, Health Care | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
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