This week’s leadership blog comes from Jez Gee, West Yorkshire ICS Rehabilitation Lead

What? When we reach retirement age we are more likely NOT to be in good health.

What’s all this about?

When it comes to the grand plan, retiring in poor health is not it. Working in poor health is also not it. But for many people, including our colleagues and the patients we see, this is unfortunately the case.

Hello, I’m Jez, a physiotherapist and advanced practitioner who grew up in Bradford District and Craven with a love of sport and the outdoors. I am fortunate that my health allows me to work full time and spend most of the rest of the week playing, coaching or watching football. But what happens when our health stops us doing our work or doing what we love? Working within a long COVID service for the last five years has shown me the devastating impact a health symptom or condition can have on people’s lives and why making work a health outcome is so important.

Human happiness and wellbeing are said to require somewhere to live, someone to love and something to do. Our role is to limit or stop health getting in the way of that, and making work a health outcome should be the start.

An earlier version of the quote includes something to hope for. Currently, believing that things will change for the better can be challenging, and my thoughts go to all those who are impacted by the current changes.

The data:

• the experience of ill health will be 20 years earlier for those in the most deprived areas compared to those in the least deprived areas of West Yorkshire
• 1 in 5 people living in the most deprived areas will have more than one long-term condition when they are 50 to 59 (1 in 10 for least deprived areas)
• 339,180 people in West Yorkshire are working with a health issue
• 101,000 people are currently unable to work because of one or more health conditions
• being out of work due to ill health can lead to lower income, poor health behaviours and social isolation or loneliness - these are all risk factors of further health conditions, including frailty

In other words, we know that over 20% of working age people in West Yorkshire are balancing work and health. We know that many of these people will have more than one long-term condition. And we know that if people are unable to achieve the balance between work and health, they will be at greater risk of further health issues and increased health deprivation.

Vocational rehabilitation

Vocational rehabilitation is a process that helps individuals with health conditions overcome barriers to achieve and maintain meaningful employment (Vocational Rehabilitation Association). The expertise in this area has grown rapidly in West Yorkshire over the last few years since the start of the pandemic. This is in part due to symptoms of COVID-19 lasting longer than four weeks (long COVID) for thousands of working age people.

Historically, like most rehabilitation, it has been considered in the ‘nice to do’ box, a dispensable part of the healthcare system. Finally, with a focus on community and prevention, the power of quality, value and rehabilitation are being recognised. ‘Addressing the impact of a health condition on a person’s everyday life by optimising their functioning and reducing their experience of disability’ (definition of rehabilitation, WHO, 2024) improves people’s lives and reduces demand on the NHS which improves capacity.

Now, through the Healthy Working Life programme, multiple offers exist across West Yorkshire for all long-term conditions. This includes stroke in Bradford District and Craven, those having cardiac rehabilitation in Mid Yorks as well as support for people with long COVID in Leeds. You can read more here. These schemes sit alongside a large offer of support for people from community-based offers by the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) as well as other rehabilitation and large-scale digital and education offers.

Symptom-based, patient-led multi-disciplinary assessment and rehabilitation

Work-focused support can identify health issues early, as symptoms often emerge years before diagnosis. Addressing symptoms quickly enables earlier intervention for potential undiagnosed conditions.

A symptom-based, multi-disciplinary approach to assessment and rehabilitation offers a setting where people with multiple conditions can receive support within a single service. While condition-focused commissioning has its benefits, it often leads to fragmented care for individuals with more than one condition. This can result in numerous appointments and medications. Over the past five years, long COVID services throughout West Yorkshire have created inclusive environments that support people both with multiple long-term conditions and those without formal diagnoses. It focuses on their symptoms rather than individual conditions with a biopsychosocial approach.

Having the ability to step up care from focused work support to multi-disciplinary assessment and rehabilitation creates a seamless step for patients in a trusted environment. The next step would be to integrate with VCSE based offers to allow people to move seamlessly from community offers to health-based support, and back.  

Consider work and education as a health outcome

When we ask working age people, “What matters to you?” we often find, unsurprisingly, that work is a top priority. This can also be the same for young people where school or education is a vital part of their life. When supporting people with their health, consider work and education as a health outcome and think rehabilitation. Early data and understanding suggests this could have a significant impact on health inequalities, our population and our economy.

If you are struggling with health and work, or if you would like to find out more, please visit the Partnership website.

If you are short of a resolution for 2026, consider focusing on you and finding the right work/life balance to maximise your health and wellbeing.