Challenges to Remaining at Work with Common Health Problems: What Helps and What Influence Do Organisational Policies Have?

Buck, Rhiannon; Porteous, Carol; Wynne‐Jones, Gwenllian; Marsh, Katie; Phillips, Ceri; Main, Chris J.

doi:10.1007/s10926-011-9288-2

Cited by 26 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This ties in with the concept of the ''sick role'', which gives an individual who is sick the right to be exempt from social norms and not be blamed for his or her illness, but at the same time obligates him or her to try to get well [36]. This is further exemplified by Holmgren et al [21] who showed that managers were committed to supporting the absent employee during the entire process, but that the managers made demands on the absent employee-asking him/her to take responsibility for rehabilitation and follow regulations.…”

Section: Personal Dilemmas Of the Rtw Policy Enforcermentioning

confidence: 99%

Manager Experiences with the Return to Work Process in a Large, Publically Funded, Hospital Setting: Walking a Fine Line

et al. 2015

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Section: Personal Dilemmas Of the Rtw Policy Enforcermentioning

confidence: 99%

Manager Experiences with the Return to Work Process in a Large, Publically Funded, Hospital Setting: Walking a Fine Line

et al. 2015

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“…The role of health professionals in supporting patients on sickness absence to return to work requires further research. [92][93][94][95] There may be a need to examine incentives, and disincentives, to enter return-to-work schemes where there is evidence that interventions are effective in supporting return to work.…”

Section: Research Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative case management to aid return to work after long-term sickness absence: a pilot randomised controlled trial

et al. 2018

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BackgroundDespite high levels of employment among working-age adults in the UK, there is still a significant minority who are off work with ill health at any one time (so-called ‘sickness absence’). Long-term sickness absence results in significant costs to the individual, to the employer and to wider society.ObjectiveThe overall objective of the intervention was to improve employee well-being with a view to aiding return to work. To meet this aim, a collaborative case management intervention was adapted to the needs of UK employees who were entering or experiencing long-term sickness absence.DesignA pilot randomised controlled trial, using permuted block randomisation. Recruitment of patients with long-term conditions in settings such as primary care was achieved by screening of routine records, followed by mass mailing of invitations to participants. However, the proportion of patients responding to such invitations can be low, raising concerns about external validity. Recruitment in the Case Management to Enhance Occupational Support (CAMEOS) study used this method to test whether or not it would transfer to a population with long-term sickness absence in the context of occupational health (OH).ParticipantsEmployed people on long-term sickness absence (between 4 weeks and 12 months). The pilot was run with two different collaborators: a large organisation that provided OH services for a number of clients and a non-profit community-based organisation.InterventionCollaborative case management was delivered by specially trained case managers from the host organisations. Sessions were delivered by telephone and supported use of a self-help handbook. The comparator was usual care as provided by participants’ general practitioner (GP) or OH provider. This varied for participants according to the services available to them. Neither participants nor the research team were blind to randomisation.Main outcome measuresRecruitment rates, intervention delivery and acceptability to participants were the main outcomes. Well-being, as measured by the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), and return-to-work rates were also recorded.ResultsIn total, over 1000 potentially eligible participants were identified across the sites and invited to participate. However, responses were received from just 61 of those invited (5.5%), of whom 16 (1.5%) were randomised to the trial (seven to treatment, nine to control). Detailed information on recruitment methods, intervention delivery, engagement and acceptability is presented. No harms were reported in either group.ConclusionsThis pilot study faced a number of barriers, particularly in terms of recruitment of employers to host the research. Our ability to respond to these challenges faced several barriers related to the OH context and the study set up. The intervention seemed feasible and acceptable when delivered, although caution is required because of the small number of randomised participants. However, employees’ lack of engagement in the research might imply that they did not see the intervention as valuable.Future workDeveloping effective and acceptable ways of reducing sickness absence remains a high priority. We discuss possible ways of overcoming these challenges in the future, including incentives for employers, alternative study designs and further modifications to recruitment methods.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN33560198.FundingThis project was funded by the NIHR Public Health Research programme and will be published in full inPublic Health Research; Vol. 6, No. 2. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

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“…Other prognostic factors, such as the patients' expectation, social background, occupational 'blue flags' and the contextual 'black flags' , might be in place and need further exploration. [16][17][18] The economy might have also contributed to the favourable vocational outcome. However, the annual drop in unemployment (approximately 1%) during the period 19 was much lower than the observed increase in work rate at 1 year (18%), and was probably a minor contribution to the overall improvement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain management programme for Chinese patients: a 10-year outcome review

Chu¹,

Law²,

Cheung³

et al. 2015

Hong Kong Med J

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Challenges to Remaining at Work with Common Health Problems: What Helps and What Influence Do Organisational Policies Have?

Abstract: The Flags system was useful as a conceptual framework in this context for identifying a number of obstacles to working with health problems, many of which were potentially modifiable on worker, workplace, or wider systems levels.

Cited by 26 publications

References 25 publications

Manager Experiences with the Return to Work Process in a Large, Publically Funded, Hospital Setting: Walking a Fine Line

Manager Experiences with the Return to Work Process in a Large, Publically Funded, Hospital Setting: Walking a Fine Line

Collaborative case management to aid return to work after long-term sickness absence: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Pain management programme for Chinese patients: a 10-year outcome review

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