Covid Rehabilitation: Workforce Recovery

NEW REPORT

Our third report of the Urban Health Council titled ‘The Covid Workforce’ is out now for members.

INTRODUCTION

Covid-19 has produced a widespread and communally traumatic event that will have trans generational consequences. One of the key consequences will be its toll on long term health, both mental and physical. For more information on the different pathways, please see our work on the Secondary Effects of Covid-19. 

Global society was already facing a health emergency with spikes in the rates of non communicable diseases (NCD). For example, in Sub Saharan Africa 22.9 million people experience cardiovascular diseases and 13.6 million experience a mental health disorder and a further 10.4 million experience diabetes (source). Adding Covid-19 to this health emergency, makes our society even more vulnerable to future poor health outcomes. Specifically amongst those who have gone on to experience long-haul Covid-19 and the pandemic’s secondary effects. 

The lesson here is that the returning workforce will need full support to re-integrate into a work-life. There will be a need for cross industry collaboration from HR departments, to councils, to health practitioners. It is imperative that we learn the lessons from Covid-19, which are that without health we have nothing; no economy, no society, no culture, and no sense of being.