A workplace intervention for sick-listed employees with distress: results of a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

No overall effect of the participatory workplace intervention on lasting RTW was found. The workplace intervention appeared effective on lasting RTW for employees who at baseline intended to return to work despite symptoms. For employees who showed no baseline intention to return to work, the intervention did not have any effect. Other approaches are needed for this subgroup. This trial has been registered at the Dutch National Trial Register ISRCTN92307123.

Effectiveness of an integrated care intervention on supervisor support and work functioning of workers with rheumatoid arthritis

“…As described before, Lambeek et al and van Oostrom et al showed the effectiveness of the intervention on time until sustainable return to work for workers sick-listed due to back pain and distress, respectively. [17,18] The participatory workplace intervention was evaluated among sick-listed workers. In the current study, we chose to include workers not (yet) sick-listed but limited in their work functioning.…”

“…Another study showed that the intervention was effective on sustainable return to work for workers sick-listed due to distress if they intended to return to work despite symptoms. [18] The first component of the intervention is integrated care, the second component a participatory workplace intervention. [19] In addition to integrated care, we included a workplace intervention in the intervention programme, based on participatory ergonomics.…”

Evaluation of Self-Reported Work Ability and Usefulness of Interventions Among Sick-Listed Patients

“…Contacts with health care are often complex with many actors involved (5,6,11), and increased communication between physicians in primary health care and occupational health services is essential (14,15). There is some evidence that collaboration between the sick-listed patient, health care providers and the employer favours the rehabilitation process (10,(16)(17)(18). Patients consider their contact with the health care provider as an important part of their rehabilitation that affects recovery and return to work (RTW) (17,(19)(20)(21)(22).…”

“…Opinions about satisfaction and reported usefulness were found to be important measures for evaluating a RTW program based on graded activity combined with work-related interventions (7). expectations and obstacles to recovery, because preferences influence the outcome of interventions and RTW (13,18,29,30). Mergl et al (31) found that patients with depression who received the preferred intervention in primary health care (medication or psychotherapy) responded better to the intervention.…”

“…Mergl et al (31) found that patients with depression who received the preferred intervention in primary health care (medication or psychotherapy) responded better to the intervention. The patient's motivation may be strengthened by participation in decisions about intervention strategies (18,30,32). Early assessments with structured risk factor screening and specific interview questions that include occupational factors can be helpful for clinicians to classify different types of sick-listed patients with low back pain, as a basis for dialog concerning choice of interventions and for tailoring individualized interventions (12,13,33).…”