FA, Premier League, EFL & PFA announces joint brain health initiative
The FA, Premier League, EFL and Professional Footballers Association (PFA) have announced a new joint action plan on understanding, promoting, and protecting brain health.
The plan focuses on research, education, awareness, and support for players. It will bring together all workstreams and resources to manage head injuries more effectively, and to further understand the links between the game and neurodegenerative diseases.
The organisations have also announced a consultation with key stakeholders which will help shape future work in this important area. Interested parties will be invited to provide their views regarding ongoing research programmes, how to improve heading awareness, knowledge, and education of concussion across the game, as well as any additional areas of support that could be given to current and ex-professional footballers.
For more on the initiative, visit the SHP website.
Coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder and the Winter Blues
There are steps we can take to alleviate winter dips in mood.
Key points:
- Many people experience low mood during the darker months of the year.
- Awareness of our moods helps, along with exercising outside, connecting with other people, and improving our diet.
- Some people suffer from “seasonal affective disorder” or “SAD,” when lifestyle modifications are not enough to prevent or remedy a dip in mood.
- Specific treatments for SAD include using a “light box” to help boost mood with light.
Many people feel sad or depressed during the dark months of the year. Most people cope with the winter blues, but some are significantly disabled by their symptoms. For a minority, the pattern is reversed, and they have difficulty during the brighter months.
So, how can we cope with seasonal changes in our moods?
Learn more on the Psychology Today website.
Why tiny words like ‘yup’ can send you into a tailspin
‘Thank you, great job’
Seeing this simple phrase in an email should make me happy – yet, without the warmth of an exclamation point, I feel a twinge of panic, even sadness. I understand different work and social cultures have different communication norms, yet part of my brain is working double-time to parse the subtext of that great job, minus punctuation. Did I do something wrong to deserve a frigid response? Was it frigid at all?
Of course, I’m not alone in applying microscopic scrutiny to words or phrases and their punctuation over email and chat. The way we use written language changes constantly. Not every phrase is loaded, yet we often jolt when certain short words and phrases show up in our inbox or chat windows, unpunctuated: “sure”, “OK”, “fine”, “yup”, “no prob”, gotcha”, or even “yes”, “no”, “thank you”, and “sorry”.
What is it about these short, common words and phrases that lend themselves to such varied interpretation when written? Why, when they leave the realm of speech and show up in informal written messages, do they seem to carry so much weight? And can an emailed “OK” ever really be simply OK?
Visit the BBC Worklife site to read more.
Fraudulent gas installer prosecuted for illegal gas work
A gas installer has been fined after repeatedly carrying out gas work whilst falsely claiming to be gas safe registered.
Cardiff Crown Court heard how, between September 2016 and March 2018, Jordan Louis Hare carried out gas work at four domestic premises in Cardiff and Crosskeys, but did not hold the necessary registration to carry out this work. Mr Hare installed gas boilers along with other work at the premises in Cardiff and carried out modifications to gas pipework and installed a gas boiler and gas hob at the property in Crosskeys.
On inspection, works carried out by Mr Hare at all properties, were classed as ‘immediately dangerous’, ‘at risk’, ‘not to current standards’ or ‘building regulations non-compliant’ placing the occupants and other members of the public in significant danger due to the potential risk of gas escape, fire, and explosion.
Find out more about the case on the HSE website.
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