Posture People Support Backcare Awareness Week

Many of us get used to the niggles and aches that result from using a computer, but what started as a relatively minor issue is now having long term damaging effects on our overall health.

The NHS spends over £1billion on back pain-related costs, and £565million is being spent in the private health care sector on back pain. This is a growing problem for our society. There are also other costs; the Health and Safety Executive estimates that musculoskeletal disorders, which includes back pain, costs UK employers between £590million and £624million per year.

But, should back pain be tolerated? One organisation that doesn’t believe so is Backcare - the national charity for healthy backs. Rather than believing in a miracle cure, they have been working with individuals since 1968 to help people manage and prevent back pain by providing advice and promoting self-help. This year they are holding an awareness week during 4th-10th October - ‘Believe you can do it’.

Backcare have produced an awareness information pack which contains a range of self-help materials put into the real life context of work, home and leisure. The packs can be ordered from their website: www.backpain.org

Supporting Backcare’s awareness week is local ergonomic office furniture supplier Posture People. “Since opening in 2002 we have seen a growing number of people suffering from back pain, many as a result of badly set up workstations and poor office furniture,” says Jo Blood, Director of Posture People. “We are now routinely seeing customers as young as 13 who are already suffering with back pain. As a company we are passionate about trying to reverse this trend.”

In order to support the campaign, Posture People are running a free advice clinic at their ergonomic showroom in Brighton. The clinic will provide one-to-one assessments about how people are currently sitting at their desks and offer practical tips for improving their workstation.
If you would like to book an assessment at the free workstation advice clinic, you can contact Posture People on 0845 313 1503.

If you can’t make it to the showroom for a personal consultation, Jo has provided her five top tips for improving your workstation:

1. Always have your feet firmly on the floor or a footrest.

2. Your elbows should be at a comfortable 90 degree angle to the desk.

a. If you are too tall to achieve this, look at raising the height of your desk.

b. If you are struggling to reach the desk (with your elbows at a right angle and your feet firmly on the floor) then use a footrest.

3. Make sure your screen is about an arm’s distance away.

a. If you find yourself still leaning forward to look at the screen – think about getting an eye test to check your prescription.

4. Have the top of the windows toolbar at roughly the same height as your eyes.

5. If you are a laptop user, get a laptop stand to raise the screen to the right height. But, this will mean that you will need to use a separate keyboard and mouse.

Posture People are an office furniture company that specialises in helping people with workstation problems. It is estimated that four out of every five adults (80%) will experience back pain at some stage in their life . Posture People were established to improve everybody’s workplace, from the sole home worker to companies with 500+ staff. It is the only showroom in the South East, outside London that enables customers to try out its ergonomic and stylish products before they buy them.

For more information visit: www.posturepeople.co.uk, call 0845 313 1503 or visit their showroom:

Jo Blood
Posture People
116 Dyke Road
Brighton
BN1 3TE