This article presents a study of stress and stress-related issues—more specifically, those of burnout, work compassion, and job satisfaction in the population of professionals working in vocational rehabilitation in Republic of Slovenia. Our findings revealed that, on average, the professional workers experience stress as medium high. Further analyses between various subgroups of the population of professional workers revealed that fixed-term workers are under significantly more stress than permanent ones. Stress factors included high work demands, time pressure, and too many administrative tasks. Participants reported making decisions, especially making risky decisions, and the feeling of being undervalued as being the main causes of frustration at work. Main sources of stress stem from the organization of work (legislation, rules, and other institutions). The population of professional workers was also highly exposed to compassion fatigue, which was a risk factor for burnout. These findings raise questions about assertiveness and call for a systemic approach. Based on these results, those proposed activities target developing skills for effective coping with stress, both on the individual and system levels.

Chronic health conditions represent the major share of the disease burden in Europe and have a significant impact on work. This study aims to: (1) identify factors that have a negative or positive impact on the work lives of persons with chronic health conditions; (2) explore the needs of these persons to maintain a job or return to work and (3) compare these results with respect to these persons’ occupational status. An online survey was performed in seven European countries. Open-ended survey questions were analyzed using qualitative methods. In total, 487 participants with six chronic health conditions participated. The majority of participants named work-related aspects (such as career development, stress at the workplace, work structure and schedule as well as workload), support of others and attitudes of others as being the factors positively and negatively impact their work lives the most. Our study shed light on the importance of changing the attitudes of supervisors and co-workers to counteract stigmatization of persons with chronic health conditions in the workplace. In conclusion, this study provides a basis for developing new strategies of integration and reintegration at work for persons with chronic health conditions in European countries.

For decades, employment of a person with disabilities has been considered a key indicator of the success of vocational rehabilitation. There is a link between the quality of vocational rehabilitation and a better quality of life for service users; these services have a significant impact on efficiency in the field of work. Very few authors have researched the qualification and skills of rehabilitation experts essential for successfully carrying out their professional activities. The objective of the present study was to investigate the perceived importance attached to the competencies of vocational rehabilitation professionals and the frequency of their application at work in three different countries, which was conducted using a questionnaire that was prepared on the basis of a questionnaire designed by Australian researchers. Basic competencies comprise four sets: vocational counselling, professional practice, personal counselling and rehabilitation case management. Special competencies are composed of two sets: workplace disability case management and workplace intervention and programme management. The questionnaire was completed by 131 respondents, of whom 61 were from Slovenia, 34 were from Austria and 36 were from the UK. t-Tests for two independent samples (sex), analysis of variance (type of education, country) and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to compare the perception of basic and special competencies. The respondents perceived personal counselling, vocational counselling and management of rehabilitation cases as being the most important, whereas the least importance was assigned to interventions. In practice, the respondents used personal counselling most frequently and very few interventions.

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Employment implies economic independence, social inclusion, non-discrimination and impacts people’s life in areas beyond work. Therefore, for persons with disabilities (PwD), that include persons with chronic diseases (PwCD), equal employment opportunities must be provided and reasonable accommodation (RA) in employment carefully designed. The objectives of this study done in Slovenia were: (i) to translate and adapt RA Factor Survey (RAFS; Dong et al., 2010); (ii) to examine psychometric properties of its expanded Slovenian modification Aspects of RA survey (ARAS); (iii) to find out the views of professionals in the field by ARAS; (iv) to present Slovenian model of employment rehabilitation concerning PwD and PwCD. ARAS was developed with the collaboration of professionals performing focus groups, it consists of three parts Influencing factors, Contents areas and Barriers with 78 items. Data were collected from 140 professionals and underwent descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The results showed that the key factors for RA implementation are attitude and support of employer/organization. Other important factors are employee and his/her employment, the conditions to implement RA, and the awareness of employee and work environment. ARAS might be used as a framework to assist in the development, improvement, and implementation of RA in practice. This is discussed in the broader context of equal opportunities for employment of PwD including PwCD and the welfare model in Slovenia.