Safety – Amenity – Access – Health

 

Hollywood staff to strut out for
  Walk To Work Day – Friday 3 October 2008

 

‘By 2025, a total of 4.6 million Australians are projected to be obese’ ¹ - Don’t be one of them!

Get walking on Friday 3 October, which is National Walk to Work Day (WTWD).  Hollywood Private Hospital is participating in the day in WA.

 

Wayne Williams, Hotel & Property Services Manager and Chairman of the Environmental Group at the hospital, said walking is such a simple activity, yet the majority of Australians don’t do enough of it.  He believes this is one of the key reasons that currently over half of the Australian population is overweight or obese.

 

“We’re encouraging our staff, and indeed, other West Australians, to forget about the diet shakes, fitness machines and fad diet programs and get walking,” said Mr Williams.

 

For the day, the hospital has organised for staff to opt into a walk to Kings Park, followed by a healthy picnic lunch and some games and give-aways.

 

“National Walk to Work Day is the perfect time to stop making excuses, do something good for yourself and develop a new healthy habit of regular physical activity. After all, walking is an easy, enjoyable, safe and sociable method of exercise and it makes you feel great, particularly in this spring weather,” Mr Williams said.                                                                                                     

The facts speak for themselves.  Access Economics estimates that productivity losses due to obesity are at $3.6 billion and a further $2 billion in health costs, while the combined financial costs of the obesity related ‘big three’ is $19.5 billion dollars per annum. (Diabetes $3 billion; cardio vascular disease $13.1 billion; and cancers $3.4 billion).  Meanwhile, 23.8% of Type 2 diabetes and 21.3% of Cardio Vascular Disease is caused by obesity. Obesity and being overweight are also important causes of cancer, particularly cancers of the colon (11%), breast cancer in post-menopausal women (9%), uterus (39%), kidney (25%), oesophagus (37%) and gall bladder (24%)

 

Walking along with other therapies can also be used to overcome mild to moderate depression which accounts for three to four days off work per month for each person experiencing depression – the equivalent of more than six million working days per year in Australia². Undiagnosed depression costs $4.3 billion dollars in lost productivity annually³.

 

Mr Williams said WTWD is truly an event for everyone.  He added Hollywood Private Hospital is 100 per cent behind this campaign because like many other public and private organisations across Australia, the hospital believes the benefits of encouraging people to get fit and healthy by walking more, far outweighs the costs.

 

Organisations and individuals can register for Walk to Work Day at www.walk.com.au .   There is no cost to register or participate.

 

For more information or to arrange a photo of Hollywood staff preparing for Walk to Work Day (Wayne Williams and WTWD picnic organiser Robin Archer also reside in Wembley area), please contact:

 

Karen Kerlin                                                  Penny Tassone – Marketing and PR Manager

PR Coordinator                                             Katherine Fillipi – Marketing and PR Coordinator

Walk to Work Day                                         Hollywood Private Hospital

Phone 0414 443 964                                      P: 08 9346 6664 / 9364 6663

2 Andrews G, Hall W, Teesson M, and Henderson S. (1999). The Mental Health of Australians. Mental Health Branch, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.

3 Hilton, M. (2004). Assessing the financial return on investment of good management strategies and the WORC Project. The University of Queensland.