When should VR start?

VR should run alongside medical recovery and rehabilitation services. Research has shown that early intervention is paramount in returning someone to work (Waddell, 2008). From the date of injury or illness onset VR should be considered and some very simple questions can be asked to help determine the likelihood of return to work:

1. When do you see yourself returning to work?

2. How will you know when you are ready to return to work?

It is unhelpful to artificially delineate between work and home life because the two are inextricably linked. In this way obstacles that may be situated in the person’s home life can be addressed as well as those that may be attached to the workplace. The focus from start to finish is work and this is why VR strategies need to be implemented at the earliest opportunity.

What is Vocational Rehabilitation?

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) is a broad concept that includes a range of ideas and practices that help people enter into, stay at and return to work. The Workplace Health Partnership (WHP) considers VR as a critical element in the recovery processes for the working age population in the UK and this viewpoint is echoed by the Government (DH. DWP., Nov, 2008) and health professionals’ organisations (Health Work and Wellbeing, March, 2008).

Government, Insurers, Employers (both public and private sector), Personal Injury and Employment Law lawyers are now beginning to recognise VR as an important early intervention tool in reintegrating people back into employment; in some cases re-entering the labour market a number of years after exiting it.

VR improves a person’s overall quality of life and it is now known that being in work also has significant health benefits (Waddell, 2008).

It is not only financially that people are better off the sooner they get back to work. There are also important psycho-social benefits in:

1. helping to maintain the family unit in as normal a pattern as is possible and,

2. keeping open communication with an employer as the journey through a return to work process can be lengthy and disruptive to daily routines and intrusive into personal matters.

There is a need to ensure that VR values and principles, relative to the situation of any individual, are understood by all involved in assisting that person to enter into, stay in and/or return to work. Many people, perhaps far more than we currently recognise or accept, can make a successful managed return to work with their health conditions.