gms | German Medical Science

Background: Since the 1990s, there has been a move across international jurisdictions to policies and programs that focus on work ability, not disability, and on strategies that encourage employment integration of people with temporary and permanent impairments.

Aim: This presentation provides a reflection on 30 years of work disability programs. What can we say about these program ideals: what worked and what did not work, and why?

Method: Top work disability researchers from 13 jurisdictions assembled in Toronto in 2017 to share knowledge about work disability conditions, policies, and social, economic and political realities of work integration. This led to chapters for the edited book, The Science and Politics of Work Disability Prevention [1]. Each chapter addressed work disability policies in the authors’ country, including current practices and avenues for change. We compared and contrasted Issues raised in the chapters and then synthesized these using critical thematic analysis approaches.

Results/findings: A relationship between reduced number of people on disability benefits and increased employment is not always clear. Strategies for successfully engaging employers and health care providers in work integration are still developing.

Discussion and conclusions: More tracking is needed of employment outcomes for people who receive or are declined support. Areas of emergent concern are effects of quality of the claimant encounter with providers and approaches to support the growing self-employment economy.