In 2017, the late David Shutts OBE was faced with a dilemma. Despite several decades of a successful career in the Royal Navy and later as a regional business director, he suddenly found himself completely isolated from the world of work. And why? Because he had been diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer. Although the physical symptoms of the disease robbed him of his energy and made everyday life much more difficult, David wished to continue working and still had a wealth of valuable skills he could offer. However, he struggled to find any flexible, inclusive roles that would fit alongside his treatment and condition management. Like hundreds of thousands of people with long-term conditions, he craved the sense of purpose and social environment that meaningful work can provide, but discovered that finding accessible opportunities was a profound challenge in itself. This led to the creation of Astriid in 2018, and the beginning of our story.
Since then, we have helped 120+ people with long-term health conditions to find inclusive roles. As well as our former job-matching service connecting individuals with meaningful job roles, we create unique support sessions and resources to help this community up-skill, identify suitable opportunities to work, advocate for their access needs, and take care of their mental and physical wellbeing while pursuing their career goals. At the same time, we have delivered bespoke training sessions to dozens of high-profile businesses and organisations and continue to share our expertise on accessible recruitment, flexible working, inclusive language, and more. Keep on reading to find out how we can support you!
Around 20% of the UK population are living with at least one long-term health condition, and it’s estimated that one in three have an Energy Limiting Condition. This number is only set to rise, and making the world of employment more inclusive for this population has never been as crucial as it is today… and yet the unique challenges of working with a long-term health condition and/or energy limiting condition are rarely covered in traditional disability equality training.
Living with a long-term health condition affects all aspects of a person’s life. As well as dealing with disabling physical symptoms, they may also have to contend with loneliness and isolation, financial strain from the loss of work and profound gaps in social support, and stigma and hostility due to outdated stereotypes about their diagnosis.
Many long-term health conditions are characterised by energy impairment, post-exertional malaise, and chronic pain. Not everybody with these symptoms is well enough to work, and we firmly believe that nobody should ever be forced into unsuitable employment at detriment to their physical or mental wellbeing. However, millions of people with such conditions want to work, and are actively seeking inclusive opportunities to showcase their skills.
However, people face numerous barriers in this mission. They include a lack of roles with reduced hours, lack of flexibility over working hours and/or location, fear of disability disclosure in the workplace, and more. All of these things can lead people to feel less employable and question their own self-worth… and thus the cycle continues.
