Effingham Talk

Archive for the ‘Wellbeing’ Category

After Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith promises to champion families and marriage.We discussed whether a single mother can ever bring up kids as well astwo parents?

One hundred paedophiles have been chemically castrated in a controversial prison experiment to crush their sex drive. Should we force child sex offenders to take this drugs?Do paedophiles have the same human rights as the rest of us?

And at 9, it was the BUPA Wellbeing Hour with Dr Sneh. We talked about giving up smoking and moderating alcohol drinking. If you missed it, catch up on my podcast.

Speak toyou tomorrow from 7,

Iain

WASHINGTON, DC — Lancaster, Pa., had the highest Well-Being Index score in the US across the 190 metropolitan areas that Gallup and Healthways surveyed in 2011. Four university towns — Charlottesville, Va., Ann Arbor, Mich., Provo-Orem, Utah, and Boulder, Colo. — round out the top five metro areas with the highest wellbeing.

Huntington-Ashland, W.Va.-Ky.-Ohio, had the lowest Well-Being Index score for the second year in a row. Its score of 60.1, however, was up from the 58.1 measured in 2010, which at that time was the only score below 60 in the nation.

The regional breakdown in wellbeing scores is largely consistent with Gallup and Healthways state-level results, which find wellbeing generally higher in the West and lower in the South. Three states had two cities apiece in the bottom 11, including Florida (Port St. Lucie and Lakeland-Winter Haven), New York (Utica-Rome and Binghamton), and West Virginia (Huntington-Ashland and Charleston).

The cities this article references are based on the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as defined by the US Office of Management and Budget. In many cases, more than one city is included in the same MSA. All reported MSAs require at least 300 completed surveys.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index score is an average of six sub-indexes, which individually examine life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities. The overall score and each of the six sub-index scores are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where a score of 100 represents the ideal. Gallup and Healthways have been tracking these measures daily since January 2008.

Ann Arbor Tops List in Life Evaluation

Residents of Ann Arbor rate their current lives and their lives in five years the best on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, giving the city the highest Life Evaluation Index score in the nation. Honolulu again led the nation with the best Emotional Health Index score, while Fort Collins, Colo., displaced a fellow Colorado city, Boulder, with the highest Physical Health Index score in the nation. Prescott, Ariz., had the highest Work Environment Index score, and residents living in Barnstable Town, Mass., had the highest Healthy Behaviors Index score. Appleton, Wis., which did not have a sufficient number of respondents to be reported in previous years, led the nation in residents with the best access to basic necessities.

Compare wellbeing across large, medium, and small metro areas.

Residents of Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, rated their lives about half as well as those in Ann Arbor. Similarly, residents of Flint, Mich., reported only half of the workplace wellbeing found in Prescott.

Huntington-Ashland residents again reported the worst physical health, although the city#39;s score of 67.8 is an improvement over the 64.6 measured in 2010, which at the time was more than six points lower than the next lowest city#39;s score. These results align with West Virginia#39;s position as the most obese state.

Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn.-Va., had the worst Emotional Health Index score, bumping Huntington-Ashland from the worst in 2010 to second worst in the rankings this year. Healthy behaviors were least prevalent in Fort Smith, Ark.-Okla., which ranked last in overall wellbeing among all cities in 2009. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, residents reported the worst access to basic necessities for the third year in a row, due in part to 49.3% of residents who reported lacking health insurance, by far the lowest in the nation. Coupled with El Paso in 2008, the state of Texas has lowest scoring city in the US in the Basic Access Index for all four years of measurement.

San Jose, Calif., and Washington, DC, Have Highest Wellbeing Among Large Cities

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., residents reported the highest wellbeing among the nation#39;s 52 largest metropolitan areas, those with 1 million or more residents, followed by Washington, DC-Arlington-Alexandria, Va.-Md.-W.Va. These two cities have been in the top three among large metro areas each of the past three years.

Las Vegas, Nev., had the lowest wellbeing among large cities, though its score was not dramatically lower than those near the top. Las Vegas#39; relatively lower score was driven heavily by its low basic access scores, including the fifth worst score in access to clean and safe water among all cities in the nation.

Implications

High wellbeing cities provide good examples for other metropolitan areas to follow in the pursuit of more emotionally, physically, and financially secure citizenries. These cities have the wellbeing foundation for economic success and illustrate the relevance of local interventions and local solutions that are crucial to long-term viability.

Lancaster, for example, is third best in the nation for working residents that have supervisors that partner with them. This form of relationship between workers and their supervisors can lead to decreased chances of poor health and less susceptibility to the potential negative effects of long commutes.

Charlottesville is No. 1 in the nation for residents treating one another with respect, suggesting an underlying culture of shared purpose and commonwealth.

More than four-fifths (81%) of Boulder residents reported going to the dentist at least once a year, better than any other city in America. When combined with other risk factors, poor oral health can be linked to heart disease, stroke, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and preterm births. Boulder, along with Provo and Ann Arbor, are among the top cities in America for learning new and interesting things, which is a common feature of high wellbeing cities and may reflect the influence of local universities and colleges.

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area is 10^th best among all cities and first among large metro areas for providing its residents with safe places to exercise, thereby ensuring that anyone who wants to commit him or herself to a more physically fit lifestyle is secure in doing so. Nearly all residents (96%) of this metro area agreed with this statement.

These high-level results provide a sampling of what the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index metrics reveal about US cities. Even the metro areas with the highest overall wellbeing have specific areas in need of improvement, and those with the lowest overall wellbeing have strengths that leaders can celebrate or develop to inspire improvement in other areas. By understanding these strengths and weaknesses, leaders can make better strategic and tactical decisions to affect positive change in their communities, improving individual lives and the nation overall.

View and export complete wellbeing data by metro area using Gallup#39;s US City Wellbeing Tracking interactive.

About the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index tracks wellbeing in the US, UK, and Germany and provides best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. To learn more, please visit well-beingindex.com.

A poll has discovered that Americans who describe themselves as very religious have greater all-around wellbeing than others. The survey, conducted by Gallup, ties in with others the organization has conducted that found very religious people have an overall healthier life than those who are moderately religious or not religious.

Generally speaking, those in the very religious category smoke less, eat less and exercise more. They also report better mental and emotional health. When broken down into the different indexes Gallup uses for its definition of wellbeing, those classed as very religious top all categories, which include emotional health, healthy behaviors, life evaluation and work environment.

If theres one thing about religion that adds to a sense of overall wellbeing, what is it?

ING Directs Financial Wellbeing Index for Q4 2011 has revealed that despite economic instability, Australian household financial situations improved or at least remained stable until the end of the year.

Two-thirds of Australians believe their financial situation improved or at least stabilised despite an abundance of bad economic news in 2011, according to the latest ING Financial Wellbeing Index.

By shoring up their financial wellbeing throughout 2011, the majority of Australians have been able to shrug off much of the economic bad news, said ING Direct chief executive Don Koch.

One in four households have share market investments, while half of all households have no investments or assets outside of the family home. The median value for total assets in each household was $126, 966, while one in four has less than $50,000 in assets.

The level of comfort with long-term assets and property fell from 88 to 86 in Q4, while the level of comfort with credit card spending has continued to increase in line with households deleveraging from debt.

An average of 1.7 credit cards per household did not stop the median level of household savings improving to its highest level in the last 12 months, possibly because 58 per cent of card holders typically pay their balance each month and the number of people without a credit card rose 6 per cent from the third quarter.

Comfort with savings is still low, however, with 19 per cent of Australians advising they have no savings at all.

Mortgage indicators remained quite stable from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. There was a slight downturn in the number of people paying down ahead of time, and the median mortgage balance fell slightly in the fourth quarter.

$60,418 – $69,398 pa HEW Level 05
(includes 9% employer superannuation)

• Services and programs promoting health and wellbeing
• Leading international university
• Clayton location

Monash is a dynamic university with a reputation for quality education, outstanding research and meaningful international engagement. We want to make a difference, not only to the communities we work within but the world. If you want to challenge yourself, then Monash could be the place for you.

To attract excellent people we know we need to offer excellent benefits and conditions. Thats why when you join Monash, youll join a workplace where fairness and flexibility are standards, not afterthoughts. We offer a variety of professional development opportunities, generous maternity/parental leave and work arrangements that acknowledge one size doesnt fit all.

The Opportunity

Health and Wellbeing is a directorate within the Campus Community Division which provides a range of professional services and development programs to promote student and staff health and wellbeing. Health and Wellbeing work groups include; Counselling, Student Advisory Services, Family and Childcare Services, Chaplaincy, International Student Support and Student Transition and Retention. Health and Wellbeing aims to build each individuals capacity to work, study and participate in the community experience whilst at Monash University.

Student Advisors are part of the Student Advisory Services group located in Health and Wellbeing Hubs across all the Australian Campuses. The Student Advisory Services group provides information, advice and support to students, regarding:

• Student loans and grants
• Budgeting and money management
• Orientation and Transition into the university
• International Student visa, policy and codes of practice as relating to the ESOS legislation
• Volunteering opportunities
• Friendship programs
• Family and Childcare
• Safe Community initiatives.

This position is part of the Clayton/Berwick campuses Hub teams and reports to the Hub Team Leader.

Making a job offer or appointment to this position may be subject to a prior satisfactory Working with Children and/or a Police Records Check.

This role is a full-time position; however, flexible working arrangements may be negotiated.

Your application must address the selection criteria. Please refer toHow to apply for Monash Jobs.

Enquiries

Jennifer Williams, Coordinator: Hub Operations,039905 1794

Position Description

PD – Student Advisor

Closing Date

Sunday 25 March 2012, 11:55pm Aus. EasternDaylight Time

WASHINGTON, DC — Hawaii residents had the highest wellbeing in the nation in 2011 with a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index score of 70.2, maintaining that state#39;s No. 1 status for a third consecutive year. North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, and Alaska rounded out the top five states. West Virginia residents had the lowest wellbeing, with a score of 62.3, slightly improved from 61.7 in 2010.

These state-level data are based on daily surveys conducted from January through December 2011. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where a score of 100 represents ideal wellbeing.

The Well-Being Index score for the nation was 66.2 in 2011, down slightly from 66.8 in 2010 and the lowest score Gallup and Healthways have recorded since tracking began in 2008. The decrease in the overall score in 2011 is because of small declines across all six of the sub-indexes that comprise the Well-Being Index.

Most of the state-level scores, however, were statistically unchanged in 2011 from 2010.

Western States Continue to Have Higher Wellbeing, Southern States Lower

Overall, Western and Midwestern states earned 9 of the 10 highest wellbeing scores, while Southern states accounted for half of the 10 lowest wellbeing scores.

This overarching geographic pattern in wellbeing has been consistent over the past four years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Where do Americans have the most hope?

In US cities, that place is Provo-Orem, Utah, where 76 percent of residents say their area is becoming a better place to live, according to a Gallup poll released on Tuesday.

The findings show the Utah valleys metropolitan area closely followed by Lafayette, Louisiana; the Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina area; and Huntsville, Alabama.

The nations least optimistic city? Binghamton, New York, where less than 28 percent see their area improving.

Flint, Michigan; Rockford, Illinois; and the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman area of Ohio and Pennsylvania were other pessimistic cities on Gallups Healthways-Wellbeing Index.

Gallup, which based its survey on interviews with 353,492 adults across the United States, said it wasnt immediately clear why residents in some urban areas were more optimistic and satisfied with their communities compared to others, but that unemployment rates, income and other factors may be at play.

Together, the data suggest there is likely a combination of factors that can create optimism about a community, it said in a statement releasing the results.

The national polling group also said what works in some of the best performing cities could provide an example for other regions to follow. It said leaders in more optimistic areas could channel that positive energy into a communitys economic and social infrastructure, in turn, creating the types of good jobs that help cities thrive.

Alternately, communities in which residents lack optimism risk losing the very talent and energy they need to rise again, Gallup said.

Gallups interviews were conducted throughout 2011. The polls margin of error varied according to the size of the metro area, from less than 1 percentage point for larger cities to plus-or-minus 6.5 percentage points for smaller ones.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta)

A new survey has found that Australias national disposable income took a big dive in the last few months of last year, and with it the nations state of wellbeing.

The ground-breaking project, led by Dr Aileen Ho, from the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, has created a new system to measure the relative wellbeing of people who have Huntingtons disease, a genetic brain disease for which there is currently no known cure.

The new tool, the first Huntingtons disease-specific quality of life instrument of its kind, aims to fully capture the impact of this complex disease on the everyday life of sufferers. By using this new tool to more accurately measure the impact of Huntingtons and also any effect of therapeutic interventions, scientists will be in a better position to evaluate the usefulness of interventions on patients everyday quality of life to see if there is actually a practical benefit. It is hoped that in this way, this tool will lead to more effective treatments.

Huntingtons disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that gradually affects the ability to move, think and reason, and has a devastating impact on a persons wellbeing, and that of his or her family. It affects more than 6,000 people in the UK and around 30,000 people in North America, with many more people – usually the children of those with the disease – considered at risk of developing symptoms later in life.

While there is a genetic test that can tell people whether or not they carry the gene for Huntingtons, there is no way of knowing when the first symptoms of disease – often clumsiness accompanied by unusual dance-like extraneous movements called chorea – will begin to take hold. Previously, a patients quality of life could only be assessed in a general way by asking them to complete questionnaires designed to assess wellbeing in a more general population, meaning the more specific and unique consequences of Huntingtons disease were missed.

The new tool is called the HDQoL (Huntingtons Disease health-related Quality of Life questionnaire), and is the first disease-specific quality of life instrument for people living with Huntingtons. It can more accurately capture and measure wellbeing in this particular patient group, with their unique array of disease symptoms.

The research team, funded by a research grant from European Huntingtons Disease Network, used a bespoke set of questions to understand issues that really affect patients drawn from hours of interviews with patients about their concerns and issues in daily life as a result of having Huntingtons. From this, they were able to develop a measure based on what patients said matter most.

The new HDQoL method will now become the #145;gold standard quality of life outcome measure for all clinical and research work into Huntingtons disease, following a decision by leading experts from the US-based National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Common Data Elements Project.

It is vitally important to be able to accurately measure and monitor patients wellbeing, and to understand the true impact of Huntingtons as they go about their daily lives, said Dr Ho.

This information will be useful in the long term care and management of patients over the average 20-year course of Huntingtons disease.

The new HDQoL tool has been welcomed by patients and patient support organisations, including the Huntingtons Disease Association (HDA) in the UK.

Cath Stanley, HDA chief executive, said: I think the questionnaire will be an invaluable resource as it will offer a comprehensive view of how the illness affects individuals using a holistic approach.

Work from this project, comparing quality of life ratings made by family members of patients with that of patients own self-ratings, is published today in the Journal of Neurology. Other work has also recently been published in the scientific journal Clinical Genetics.

More information: The paper, Mevhibe B. Hocaoglu, E. A. Gaffan and Aileen K. Ho, Health-related quality of life in Huntingtons disease patients: a comparison of proxy assessment and patient self-rating using the disease-specific Huntingtons disease health-related quality of life questionnaire (HDQoL), is published online by the Journal of Neurology.

Provided by University of Reading

NEW YORK, March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
US consumers are turning their backs on financial services brands that epitomize the archetypal “Wall Street” values of Gordon Gekko, according to the latest findings from brand consultancy Clear’s Brand Desire Study 2012. Only a perceived lack of alternatives is stopping them, according to a nationwide study of 6,000 people.

Only 22% of consumers have respect for banks such as Citi, Chase and Bank of America who they find too aggressive, image-focused and competitive. In a clear wake-up call for the US financial industry, only 16% of Americans said they would love to use these banks in the future. Of the 250 brands studied, these financial institutions landed in the bottom 15 across all categories, below Camel, Mobil and McDonald’s.

Consumers are looking for a bank that is compassionate, considerate and interested in their wellbeing. USAA, a bank consumers felt displayed these traits, is the only financial services company to make it in to the top twenty of all brands in the US.

Until now, big banks have had no reason to pay any heed to the concerns of their largely captive audience, but now technology brands like Google have entered the financial services sector, the big banks are under serious threat. The study reveals that Paypal has achieved an unprecedented placing of 23rd most desirable brand in the country and challengers such as Movenbank, Dwolla and Simple, are looking to change the way we bank.

Adam French, Clear’s Founder and President, said: “The traditional US banking model needs to adapt if they hope to retain loyal customers. Consumers are looking for a more human bank, which, with the exception of USAA, is in short supply. If the new challengers demonstrate compassion, consideration, and customer wellbeing, then the big brands will have to take another look at what they offer consumers beyond functional products.”

Please credit Clear’s Global Brand Desire Study 2012

To read the full results of Clear’s Global Brand Desire Study 2012 go to

http://www.brand-desire.com

For further information and interview opportunities contact Tracey O’Connor at Pumpkin on +44-(0)20-7287-2007 or tracey@pumpkin.uk.com

Notes to Editors:

Clear is a full service brand consultancy that builds desirable brands through the power of simplicity. Founded in 2002, Clear employs over 100 people across its five global offices and works with Fortune 500 companies in financial services, CPG, healthcare, apparel and more.

SOURCE Clear’s Brand Desire Study 2012

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved