We focus on four complex health issues more prevalent in urban areas
With the Social Progress Imperative, we've developed the first neighbourhood level, health-focused social progress index of its kind.
With Wellcome Trust
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Multiple long-term conditions
We're working with The Liminal Space to engage night shift workers and employers to create a better and healthier working experience.
Partner: The Liminal Space
Funding amount: £568,947
Duration: April 2021 – April 2024
Programme: multiple long-term conditions
In 2020, we partnered with The Liminal Space, a creative consultancy and design studio, to pilot a project to engage employers and night shift workers to create healthier working experiences. This built on their Night Club programme.
More people work night shifts than ever before, and this has grown to over 7 million people since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Night shift work can have a profound effect on people’s mental and physical health, and there is mounting evidence that it contributes to a number of long-term health conditions including heart disease, diabetes and depression.
In our pilot project, The Liminal Space worked with Veolia, a refuse and recycling company with around 300 employees at their Southwark centre. The focus of this intervention was on sleep and associated health issues that result from working in a way that disrupt circadian rhythms.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, through interviews and site visits with night shift and frontline workers, The Liminal Space created Supporting Our Staff (SOS), a second iteration of Night Club to offer employees support during a particularly challenging period. These resources were designed to support employee mental health, promote good quality sleep and provide advice for dealing with relationships and anxiety, and included consultations with ‘Dr Sleep’ – a sleep science expert.
Following a successful pilot, we have extended our partnership with The Liminal Space for a further three years to work with a broader range of employers in Lambeth and Southwark, from small businesses to large institutions.
The project team will develop relationships with employers to design the right type of intervention for their shift workers to implement changes that directly impact staff wellbeing.
With evaluation partner Cornish and Grey, we will create an evaluation framework to support the development and implementation of tailored interventions and better understand the impact of the project. Additionally, Liminal Space will set up a network of local employers interested in sharing best practice to help protect the health of their employees.
This work highlights the profound effect that working at night can have on people’s mental and physical health and that employers have a significant role to play in reducing the inequitable health burden faced by those on low incomes at risk of progression to multiple long-term conditions.
The Liminal Space are a creative consultancy and design studio.
Nicola Bristow is the Portfolio Manager looking after this project.
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