On 13 July your employee-led network for Disabilities and Health Conditions, m’power, will be sponsoring a Atrium event to raise awareness of Carnival UK’s journey to become a disability confident employer.
As part of this journey we’re keen for you to get involved in how we can continue to create positive experiences for people with a disability or long-term health conditions. The event will provide an opportunity to talk directly to the network along with colleagues from our Inclusion Team, Occupational Health, Validium and our fantastic Mental Health Champions.
We’ll also be giving colleagues a chance to win between £50 – £200 worth of WOW points through your feedback, thoughts and ideas on how effective you feel our existing practice and processes are. Your insight and experiences are valuable to helping us on this journey and will in turn contribute to defining our current position and identify the areas where we have the opportunity to improve so that we attract, retain and develop disabled people and people with long term health conditions to help us build diverse and effective teams.
Director of People Shore Operations, Paul Wiggins shares why his personal experience encouraged him to speak up, make a difference and get involved in the m’power network to continue this integral piece of work.
Fortunately I was travelling with a colleague, who was able to call for assistance and with his help and that of the British Airways staff I was able to get home safely.
Within a day of being home I was admitted to hospital to test for all sorts of conditions and diseases ranging from heart failure to tropical disease. It transpired that I had been living with a condition called Psoriatic Arthritis, an inflammatory form of arthritis. I learned that this was genetic, degenerative and related to how my immune system operates, in fact it was over working. The good news is that I was then put on a pathway for finding the best treatment so that the condition could be managed and I could regain some level of mobility. This took about 6 months and to a certain extent is fairly dynamic as my body continues to adjust (and get older).
My purpose in sharing this is to raise awareness of how this changed my view of the world, not just of work but in general. Things I’d taken for granted all my life, were during this time and in some cases still not possible from travel and access to simple tasks such as shopping and getting dressed. But rather than continue to be frustrated by the situation I decided to try and do something positive through my experience. So, when the opportunity came to be part of our employee led network for Disability and Health Conditions, I was keen to get involved.
My story is just one of many that we don’t know about, largely because so many disabilities and long term health conditions are not visible and are considered hidden. The list of disabilities and long term health conditions is vast, including impairment, learning difficulties and many more physical and mental conditions. Approximately one in 5 of the UK working age population report to have a disability or long term health condition. From a CUK shoreside perspective that is approximately 300 of us. Hence why it is important for us to continue our journey in this space.
So please take some time on Wednesday 13 July from 10:00 – 14:00 to come and talk to us about any experiences, insight or valuable information you have that can contribute to making a difference for all, and if your not able to make it you can enter our survey here for the opportunity to win £200 or £50 worth of WOW points.
Want to find out more? Head over to our m’power Insider page for more information on our employee led network team and the support they provide.