Promoting Health at Work: A Basic Human Right

“The reality for most persons is that one-third of our adult life is spent at work. This can have a huge impact on the quality of our life. As such, the conditions of work and the work environment can either have a positive or negative impact on our health and well-being,” remarked Dr C. James Hospedales, Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in observance of Caribbean Wellness Day 2018, celebrated today, September 8.

The United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) state that every individual has a right to healthy and safe work and to a work environment that enables him or her to live a socially and economically productive life.

In keeping with this basic human right, Caribbean Wellness Day 2018 bears the theme ‘Healthy Communities: Preserving the Workforce’. The need for workplace health promotion in disease prevention and wellness is critical, as the Caribbean remains the region of the Americas worst affected by the epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases. In Latin America and the Caribbean, NCDs are the leading cause of premature death, accounting for nearly half of all deaths of persons under 70 years, and for two out of three deaths overall.

Although the CARPHA Executive Director acknowledges that workers have a responsibility for their own health, he believes that employers also have a role to play. He is therefore encouraging employers to prioritise the development of healthy workplace policies, provision of supportive work environments and enhancing personal health skills of their employees.

Tips promoting workplace wellness can be found in the CARPHA CWD toolkit at http://carpha.org/Media-Centre/Caribbean-Wellness-Day-2018