The ‘Ability’ Paradigm in Vocational Rehabilitation: Challenges in an Ontario Injured Worker Retraining Program

MacEachen, Ellen; Kosny, Agnieszka; Ferrier, Sue; Lippel, Katherine; Neilson, Cynthia; Franche, Renée‐Louise; Pugliese, Diana

doi:10.1007/s10926-011-9329-x

Cited by 42 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Indeed, the nature and level of impairment and functional deficit can be key to ensuring appropriate rehabilitation interventions to assist someone into work are provided. We also do not suggest a purely 'ability' paradigm which risks ignoring potential effects of ongoing medical issues and impairment as barriers to successful employment, as highlighted recently in Ontario [39]. In fact the WSS expressly encompasses environmental and contextual barriers to relation to specific work tasks relevant to that individual and to the individual job under consideration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Development of a new tool to evaluate work support needs and guide vocational rehabilitation: the Work-ability Support Scale (WSS)

Fadyl

McPherson

Schlüter

et al. 2014

Disability and Rehabilitation

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Purpose: This paper outlines our overall approach, qualitative work, and pilot testing to develop a tool to facilitate identification of level of support needs and assist in planning for vocational rehabilitation interventions.Methods: A set of foundation principles drawn from literature and previous critiques of work--ability assessment tools were used to guide a set of studies to develop a new tool. A review of the literature regarding factors that influence work--ability, qualitative interviews and focus groups with a range of stakeholders in the return--to--work process, and pilot testing in different settings were used to develop the Workability Support Scale (WSS) to a stage where it had face validity, usability and acceptability for a range of key stakeholders and was ready for further testing.Results: Qualitative work and pilot testing enhanced the proposed tool with a series of changes and refinements to the content, structure and scoring framework. The current version of the tool is presented. Inter--rater reliability is presented elsewhere. Conclusion:Core principles and stakeholders' views (injured or sick workers, employers, case managers and health professionals) support current tool design. Although further testing is required, the WSS appears to hold potential for use in the assessment of vocational rehabilitation needs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Development of a new tool to evaluate work support needs and guide vocational rehabilitation: the Work-ability Support Scale (WSS)

Fadyl

McPherson

Schlüter

et al. 2014

Disability and Rehabilitation

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“…A focus on individuals" abilities rather than impairments has also come to shape disability management services in order to counter social exclusion from the labour market [1][2]. However, in welfare policy and practical work it is unclear what the concept of work ability involves and definitions and assessments can be different among involved organizations and professionals [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy and Practice of Work Ability: A Negotiation of Responsibility in Organizing Return to Work

et al. 2012

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PurposeIn welfare policy and practical work it is unclear what the concept of work ability involves and assessments may be different among involved actors, partly due to a lack of theoretical research in relation to regulations and practice. Based on theoretical and legal aspects of work ability the aim of the study is to analyze stakeholders" perspectives on work ability in local practice by studying multi-stakeholder meetings. MethodsThe material comprises nine digitally recorded multi-stakeholder meetings. Apart from the sick-listed individual, representatives from the public Social Insurance Agency, health care, employers, public employment service and the union participated in the meeting. The material was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. ResultsThree perspectives on work ability were identified: a medical perspective, a workplace perspective and a regulatory perspective. The meetings developed into negotiations of responsibility concerning workplace adjustments, rehabilitation efforts and financial support.Medical assessments served as objective expert statements to legitimize stakeholders" perspectives on work ability and return to work. ConclusionsAlthough the formal goal of the status meeting was to facilitate stakeholder collaboration, the results demonstrates an unequal distribution of power among cooperating actors where the employers had the "trump card" due to their possibilities to offer workplace adjustments. The employer perspective often determined whether or not persons could return to work and if they had work ability.

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“…Previous studies, many Ontario-based, have documented structural barriers to return to work such as lack of attention to accommodations by employers, unrealistic recovery guidelines, and untimely and inappropriate vocational retraining [23,30,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. Our study contributes to this literature by untangling, through the voices of workers, employers, physicians and adjudicators, the interpersonal and structural barriers to RTW for linguistic minorities specifically.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…It is worth noting, to that effect, that ''language barriers'' is included in the WSIB list of ''Red Flags'' for staff to use as indicators of potential fraud or wrongdoing. 38 At the same time, a number of RTW policies and practices failed to properly consider or mitigate workers' lack of English proficiency and other limitations. Namely, in some cases the assigned SO or SEB required more English skills than workers had; LMR testing tools were not available or administered in languages other than English; ESL training was of questionable quality and failed to account for workers' physical and psychosocial limitations; academic or skills training failed to account for workers' English limitations; job search expectations were insensitive to workers' realities; and English limitations were not evaluated or accommodated systematically.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to Return-to-Work for Linguistic Minorities in Ontario: An Analysis of Narratives from Appeal Decisions

Premji

2014

J Occup Rehabil

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The ‘Ability’ Paradigm in Vocational Rehabilitation: Challenges in an Ontario Injured Worker Retraining Program

Cited by 42 publications

References 57 publications

Development of a new tool to evaluate work support needs and guide vocational rehabilitation: the Work-ability Support Scale (WSS)

Development of a new tool to evaluate work support needs and guide vocational rehabilitation: the Work-ability Support Scale (WSS)

Policy and Practice of Work Ability: A Negotiation of Responsibility in Organizing Return to Work

Barriers to Return-to-Work for Linguistic Minorities in Ontario: An Analysis of Narratives from Appeal Decisions

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